Edward Kamau Braithwaite, 'Mmenson'

[duathir.livejournal.com]

Mmenson

Summon now the kings of the forest,
horn of the elephant,
mournful call of the elephant;

summon the emirs, kings of the desert,
horses caparisoned, beaten gold bent,
archers and criers, porcupine arrows, bows bent;

recount now the gains and the losses:
Agades, Sokoto, El Hassan dead in his tent,
the silks and the brasses, the slow weary tent

of our journeys down slopes, dry river courses,
land of the lion, land of the leopard, elephant,
country; tall grasses, thick prickly herbs. Blow elephant

trumpet; summon the horses,
dead horses, our losses: the bent
slow bow of the Congo, the watering Niger...

by Edward Kamau Braithwaite


[Mmenson: an orchestra of elephant tusk horns, used on state occasions to relate history.
Agades: a town in the western Sudan.
Sokoto: a town in what is now northern Nigeria.]