Blood Diamonds: A Rendition of an Apocalypse*

Louis Egbe Mbua

For wrongs and trespasses committed
Against the Most Holy One enthroned
Above seated on high, lapis and carried
By Seraphim worshipped and praised;
By creatures so celestially crowned,
Created with fire; with movements
At speeds of lightning deportment;
Pray the Holy One does redeem
The people, gems, champions of esteem,
Making atonements to rejuvenate
On what once was lost but now found;
For no man does self-elevate
To self-made a sovereign as to pound
His mortal chest-beating in defiance
Of the Only One on Most High watching;
His creation; a melting disappearance
Of Beauty; malfeasance despoiled
By him who by fallen pride recoiled
Not from casting lustful eyes awide
As to spread fear, lies on either side
Of the Chasm: Heaven and earth
Where dwells all creatures; living
By the power of Spirit that cleaneth
All creation, all creatures; enlightening
To know the wicked enemy roaming
And see the adversary deceiving;
Coverting and stealing; eyeing
The kingdom; Him not duly given
To the whole truth but Air Prince stolen
Title; forever not given or sustained
Since in fraud this title contained;
In a hollow darkened plan prepared
In empty pride; no love conceived
By his hapless troopers so out fought
In their futile battle unappeased
By their diabolic aims so sought.

War for Diamonds – Blood Diamonds

Thus the great hand battle emerged
To dislodge the Great Ogre lodged
On the neck of Diamonds squeezed.
As the huge Red Dragon tightened
The enormous grip on free red blood!
He sucks:apocalyptic blood flood!
And then Diamonds came off stumps;
Her hardness greater than ord’ rock
Found in all earth and the heavens
To stand up as one; weakened in stills
The broken parts no longer holds
As the Great Ogre with an iron frock
And a clay foot had Diamonds picked
Up from aground to be swung around
Like a swirling boiling sea raged
By a fierce wind: hurricane laced
With torrents; and raindrops flicked
Around Diamonds with savage drones
As in the sounds of a great myriad
Of chariots: a furious army of dunces.

The Terrifying Scene

Appeared a terrifying scene so dreadful
That never before earth has been seen
On earth since Diamonds turned bountiful
To the resting princes resting between
The freezing west and the burning east.
The Great ogre his left foot planted east
And a monstrous kick with right foot west
But with a great rush of wind did he miss
His intentions to destroy the serpent lest
The Red Dragon gathers his stars thrown
On Diamonds humble dwelling down
The devastated planet; man’s sure curse
Fooled by Dragon; ruler with no course
And with no known truth and torch light
But love of darkness: propensity to blight.

The Red Dragon; an advantage gave
Not least chance for Ogre who craved
For assistance from his fall brought
About by miscalculations untaught
By ages of co-habitation disallowed
From above ‘cause celestially created
Must he keep his realm: not alloyed
With Diamonds from dustly earth created.
Yet Ogre, same wicked spirit enchanted
As in Dragon the celestial demoted
From above to cause chaos; drawn
To earth by vain power: greed blown
By covetousness, murder committed
Against man, woman above commanded.
Thus, Great Ogre and Dragon friends; swore
To destroy Diamonds break her with sworn
Grave vengeance; to have her people wiped
Out of the face of the marked land swept
With a single mighty blow delivered
With precise wickedness obtained
From the deep; authority denounced
By the High Principalities; announced
By Holy Providence; residing
In the Highest alters; arising
With great power and compassion
Grant Dragon and Ogre permission
To rule and consume part Diamonds
But time is truth; as sweet as almonds.


The Apocalyptic Struggle

So began the terrible struggle in earnest
To dislodge Ogre and Dragon in tempest
Being that Diamonds were to be recovered
Put again together as was Diamonds favoured
By natives and heirs of gold Diamonds given
To them by heavenly fortune-named proven
By Providence's advance; so man is not pained
By his lightning fall from blinding beauty gained
From glorious Providence's prodigious creation;
And lost with pure watered paradise in unison.
So united poor indigenes; so noble they were,
Began a challenge for Diamonds’ recovery
With a new song called out: Come! Come! Rally!
For the new gainful struggle in savoire-faire:

The delivery of Diamonds defined
The day of rescue reckoned
The moment of history ushered
To scoop repositories plundered

We agree that all are whole
Were born the same way
And are free to away do
With Dragon and Ogre’s hold

The elasticity of mercy strained
Of compassion restrained
By the cruel over-burden
Of man by beasts in the open



We must fly like a falcon
Into albatross must we turn?
Above mountains on high erupting
To initiate the earth shaking

All trees shaking in tremor
Like a man caught in cold tenor
Of bitter mountain breeze
At good times no freeze

Brothers and sisters of call
Join hands as one: the fall
Of evil; plot the end of lust
Dragon and Ogre’s end a must.

And then gathered all natives versed
With the fine-tuned stanza: composed
To reflect the peoples’ deep thoughts,
To affect the natives; swinging modes
Of thoughts reversible but distorted
By Ogre and Dragon so heartless
As to spread falsehood to harness
And harass Diamonds: not for sale
Meme pour la utilite nationale,
For oppressed natives unconcerned
With greed, organised lies pertained.
Their heritage enmeshed in couture
That lasts Cinquant Mille au futur
In the reign of the trusted leader.

An Unexpected Victory

Victory won and Diamonds regained
And handed to natives for safe keeps,
So men have Diamonds justly retained
In precinct state; to not due sleep
One moment standards maintained
At a novel level; not a daring slip
Into a lethargy so attained
By the elected ones on the ship
To drive them; in benefits accrued
Shared in most solemnest equity
So all can share in Diamonds mined
From times and times in antiquity
When Diamonds and Gold were valued
In all estranged lands in entirety
And respect always expected

From natives in posterity.

Thus began the Odyssey fudged
By natives in broad Diamonds land
With new leaders: now they found
Of no great wisdom, talent and plan
To usher a new era that is meshed
In peace, prosperity;equality,
Endless opportunities buried
In the bosom of law: severity
Of judgement crimes committed
By any native: in citizenry
Against Diamonds, now shinning
With lightning brilliance; stainless
By natives with best minds hoping
That Diamonds transform: priceless
Into topaz, onyx, titanium adding
To the riches; Diamonds twinkling.


The Transmigration of RajaKaiser

And the unending rumours like wild fire
Spread as come the voice down the wire:
That Kaiser no more a single breathe
On his lungs deflatedly sagged breadth
Unimagined before the man departed
To Eu-Amerique seeking aid; panting
With large pieces of Diamonds looted
In an hexagonal cut, prized booked
By the Prince in Amerique engrossed
By the power allotted him, enthralled
To high heavens by the sudden wealth
Bestowed on him by night in stealth
While Kaiser laid horribly seared
By the burning fire on which he swore.
There, confusion and delusion reigned
In the entire Diamonds land frightened
But filled with no small enchantment
And anxiety of coy containment
As questions upon questions asked
Of Diamonds on this news of Raja:
Was it truth or falsity at hand?
Those indigenes wondered, bemused
By all the news and all no news!
And reports; genuinely true or false
They could tell not from all media:
The internet, radio, multimedia
'Could not be so precisely inferred


To ills befell Kaiser thus interred
Within the stalked halls of rumoured
Demise, Diamonds in hand, chain on foot
Caught half-way two wise and the fool
And no description fit for purpose
In this design of grand larceny
And stupendous deception to boot!
That one is enslaved indefinitely
And Raja Kaiser chained slyly.

Fifty days gone, the bright new dawn
All indigenes heard, that Raja is gone
Taken away into gloom to no more live
On earth not to sift Diamonds gratuit:
On no account to check validity
And no judge with gruesome impunity
With a Senate promptly docile
On the orders they heartily receive
From rejected Brutus the traitor
Bent on slaying le spectateur
In the shameless utterance;
And pretentious magnificence:
“Mr Sanopona is a bad man”,
In a bid to illicit favour gain
And to get a defective pram
To be cushioned as a new born
RajaKaiser; a tragic twist
Of asperity and unquenched thirst!
Of usurpation savage abandon
In part Diamonds, partly Dragon
That'd be laid in fiery waste
By greed, breeding unwanted hate
To the entire Diamonds in a haste
To free herself from mocked Kaiser.

The Return of the RajaKaiser


Rumours and news dematerialised
While bird Albatross materialised
In the ramshackle Diamonds’ fields,
Flowing with indigenes at hand for fills
For crumbs of fallen bread they beg
As fallen dew down, worshipping
Transmigrated RajaKaiser, an egg
To be rehashed, back-patted ruling
Les citoyens in all but by proxy
Being inadvertently deluded
To judge not Kaiser in posterity

RajaKaiser lives a god excluded,
So they inexorably exclaimed:

Long live Rajakaiser!
Long live the saviour!
RajaKaiser lives forever
The saviour dies never
Dimabola loba
Masoma na linga

And RajaKaiser 's teeth beamed
A huge plastic grin that showered
His time-ravaged face bleached
With stolen blood Diamonds brace
And done with imaginative brio;
Face glowing in the sun bright
Red, crimson, an artistic sleight
On nature that free gift endows;
Present in good and evil beings
That nature adorns as law allows;
Each one a reason to rejoice.
Les citoyens a novel view held,
To argue on the land despoiled
By three-score years of disgrace;
Joining in the enigmatic chorus:

Jimbi Kumbi!
E’Njuma emuka
A Sango Loba
O Gwindea
Osi Nanga!

RajaKaiser's heart burning with rage
Since he fondly cherished this not;
So sent him violent men of pure nut,
Men with no clean souls but shadows
From the depth of the fearful void
Like a tuned reportage from Hades:

Guns and Roses!
They proclaimed in prose
Guns to pounce!
They shouted in poem
Roses a ruse!



*To be continued in print......