BIAFRA (SONNETS ON POST COLONIAL AFRICA'S FIRST GENOCIDE) LXXIV

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“I speak to ANNI mother of the sun slaved ‘yond the OCEAN-STREAM to PALMARES of BRAZIL. In PALMARES your sons' and daughters' quest to break the chains of slavery soared heavenwards – then became as a heartsickness that heals not. Their suffering souls stand in serried ranks here at your remembering of the enslaved,” the impassioned POET-SOLDIER lauds the dead. “O mother of a son chained aboard the slave ship to the NEW WORLD, heal the souls of PALMARES, hear their cry. And BIAFRA, mother of the children that starved in that GENOCIDE-BY-STARVATION that overtook us all: here at the monument to the dead come your children.” “I thank mother BIAFRA that first spoke for the dead,” says ANNI.










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