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POETRY

APT

I knew no metaphors
But hated the animals
Those that George Orwell farmed in fabled Africa
When Grandpa told me
The animals were Africans
I was like an angry lioness
None of his explanations made me calm
I hated the mind that made that up
Like I hated hell and its ruling king
I hated beings that made the story great
Like I hated vegetables I forcefully ate
Then I settled that snow is not African
So Snowball can never be a citizen
I settled that Napoleon is not African
So wouldn’t kill myself with hate
Until age pulled childhood,
Like a heavy dark cloth
Little by little from eyes
I read from books the death of our Snowball
Who many deemed dictator
And many hailed great
After he was stabbed in the back in the sky
And made alien in a foreign land
The Boxers and Benjamins were and are hardly seen
But the Napoleons keep winning year after year
As their squealers work on mind chains
To keep rebellers at bay
What Orwell should have added
Was the fact that one Snowball is to each African
The light to forwardness switches
On-off-off-off-on-off-off-off
And now the urge to fight
To overthrow the pigs
Has been drowned in fears of traitors’ hell
I want to get strength and carve a huge stone
In the name of a prophet who saw before playout
One who was tagged a racial fool
To beg him for my child-like thoughts and paranoia
He was right
He is right
Africans were the farmed who rebelled to farm
But lack the skills of farming and are disarmed
So dance to tunes of ridicule
In stoogedom
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia (c) 2015
(Inspired by George Orwell’s Animal Farm)

By amoafowaa

Just a simple Ghanaian trying to find the best in our society. I may be fun, I may be interesting, I may be funny, I may even be foolish or intelligent, but it is all based on the mood in which you find yourself. I believe our minds make us who we are. Know that, pain, no matter its 'unbearability', is transient. Unburden or delight yourself for a while in my writings please. And all corrections, advice and opinions are welcome. Know that you are the king, queen or royal on this blog. :)

22 replies on “APT”

Hehe. Actually, when you look at Africa, its colonization, its rebellion, its freedom, its internal rebellion and its subsequent political disarray, apt on Orwell’s words. So the Russians might fit but as my late grandpa told me, it was a fable meant for Africa.

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The brilliance of the author! Yes, Orwell described Animal Farm as a “satirical tale against Stalin” (wikiquote), but I can see how it is also adaptable to other political struggles, too.

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In fact that satire, my grandpa said, knowingly or unknowingly fits African realms than what he was thought to have intended. And yes, he was intelligent.

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No doubting your grandfathers intelligence. He had read Animal farm and found that it also fit for what was going on in Africa, too.

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And Rob, the child I was never was interested in hos explanations. All that caught my attention was he saying the animals were Africans and using Ghana from colonialism through to Nkrumah to explain. Well, I was in love with literature but was too young to comprehend his analogy. Now I do and I dare say he was more than right

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It’s been going on here since the Spaniards came looking for gold and enslaved the Native American Tribes. Then the U.S. came in and enslaved Indians and Hispanics alike through government programs in exchange for their land and water rights…now, it’s generational. A cycle of dependence, poverty, and hopelessness expressed in deep-ceded anger. I can’t wait for the Kingdom!

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That one is complicated…equality is illusive because people are fearful and want to control others. Any reason to put others down is a useful tool and I think racism is just another abuse tactic that can grow and become part of the culture and institutionalized. All of it is about fear.

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