Fela,
When sorrows, tears and blood flows
Your angered sax would flow along,
Dishing out lyrics of condemnation,
Though the rulers never heeded your voice!
When they stole ITT funds
Your band cried
Screaming, “International thiefery”
But the culprits replied, “Hemp hallucinations”
When like now the suffering became alarming
You lamented, and wept on end,
Shouting, “Shuffering and smiling”
And they labeled you deviant!
Fela,
Why are you not here
To speak of this National quagmire
That we have found ourselves?
What would you have said?
I know, the Egypt 80 band would have,
In another underground spiritual game,
Filled our ears with lyrical chastisement
And harried this clueless regime!
They may accuse you of ethnic romance with the opposition
They may jail you as they have done in the past
But surely we will pleasured in your soulful beat,
The lyrics that spell doom for thieving oppressors!
meet the poet: Kareem Omeiza Lawal
