Diamonds are not for ever (1)

By Louis Egbe Mbua

How Happy does thou yesteryear
After many years spent: returned
To the smouldering land ; unplanned;
People pressed down by clay-footed deer
Heard not their groans; blood on ground flows,
Like the river in the city; divides in twos;
Two rivers; one, Diamonds; one Milk flows
One Land-two peoples; right left in twos
Upon centuries and millennial passed
On bedrock of was foundation laid
Happily ever after they lived; paid
Into Progress, steady, sure, they matched
Step by step the gains and game achieved
In aspects lost; some spoken in oral, unwritten
Until of late, the damage done traversed
Coming from the sea the man to be served!
And then began the brave men: of renown
Men of old, courage and honour known
Defend! The Land! lo it is taken!
Rise up! Put Pay and defeat adversary!
Friends and brothers we thought necessary,
For protection and sharing now greedy, turns
Into a ravenous wolf in deer fashion returns;
To kill, steal, plunder, to sea afar;
And the young and strong taken apart
To toil in chains and shame; no recompense;
For wicked pleasure; people's expense
In cries, anguish beyond woman and man
But Divine lifted up His hands mighty;
To Strike! the clay-footed deer: the hangman
And seize the shameful chain employed tightly
On the neck and feet for humans to choke;
And for women to sadness and tears come
For men to humiliation brought;
Children in shouts of horror thought;
A strange monster arrived from Hell
To dwell and eat in the Sacred Hall.
They toiled , chained backs over-bent
To pluck vain harvests,labour lent
For not future or hope; no pay relied
On for a day of rain, lightning pain but plied,
All trades that man thought and beknoweth
Known Old and New Craft man made doth,
Insatiable appetite, unqualified schemes
To exploit fellow citizens; stripped clean
Of dignity, weakened to mere bones
Flesh stripped to barest skeletons
Energy gone; no hope, future distant
And Benefits drained to Black Hole blanked
Bythe darkness of man's heart steeped
In power play game futility extant;
'Cause for ever not do men stay
In conditions advantage bestowed; styled
In delusion held captivated,
By self-conceit; virtue evaded
Hi-jacked, killed, buried to be reborn;
By persons to be conceived to be born,
To stand up in presence unfazed
By diamonds encrusted on walls blazed
In gold, silver, ruby, gem adorned,
The walls marbled to intimidate,
The unborn, the born on earth who donned
The armour of call to truth vitiate
In battle, war and peace proclaim;
By twos of River Diamond announced
By a clarion call; intruder denounced;
On this outrage: preposterous claim,
Of hand knoweth him no secrets;
That lurk in lush forests and hills set
To consume the arrogance from sea
Where seen from on high, they climbed
Breaching the ancient laws of battle chimed
By sages of old, men of wisdom wrote,
Today the dangers of laurels smote;
With the hardened iron and steel made,
By hands of skill: guns turned into spade
And ploughs to guns were they created
For the land of diamonds and milk blessed.