AFRICA’S HEROIC VILLIAN – For Robert Mugabe

Men are made great when their
…Upclimb shines bright under
…Grave circumstances
…Affecting the unfortunate positively, after
…Beating tragedy
…Emancipating all from a fall

Ib
You, like the promised, fell into this bracket
You were like great eyes sent to a Samaria
…to sanitize into sainthood
But you turned water
…which stayed in one pot too long
Stinking and blocking nostrils
Forcing mouths in hail to curse you out

II
You started perfectly:
Harmonizing colours to coexist
You proceeded in great planning
…taking what belonged to the land for those of the land
Your flaw was not equipping the latter
…to fit into the steps
…you created with your rightful evictions
And you should have known the angry clouds you sent up
Would turn monstrous rains to fall on you
And your people

IIb
You could have saved some of your heroic deeds
If you had descended the stairs of ruling
Into the room of advisors and or critics
I guess the food of power is like cocaine
Only the bravest among the brave weans
…from its addiction

III
All the unfair:
The Ndebele massacre in the Matabeleland Cleansing
The 2008 blood, among the many others,
…spilled to keep your grasp of power intact
The cruelty of closed ears
…to the cries of the masses
Right to the selfishness of blindness
…to the suffering of your people
Oh who can forget the back to zero choice of an alien currency
After you uprooted roots of alien plants from your soil?
All these villainized your heroic golden periods
Turning your sweetness sour
That you acted tick to stay in the hair of your people
For almost decades of four
Destroyed your image in the eyes of even your great sages

IV
The fog of your overstay
That clogs your greatness in beastial gutters of minds
Forces many to curse you into unwakeable sleep
In place of blessing you to rise in ancestorhood

V
I am sure anger chases you, in insincere hearts, like a stranger
From your own maternal manger
Since some have fists of vengeance
And many hold sticks of annoyance
With others holding guns of bitterness
In your hound
I will join the rememberers of your greatness
And bid you farewell
Hoping you rest well
Knowing your positive revolution and its symbolisms to Africa’s cause
So you help build the fort of power
Should your soul host another body in a travel back
For we still need courageous souls
Amidst the terrorisms and xenophobia
And the familiar corruption you so contributed to
May your Fierce Soul Rest in Warriorhood
Even as your spirit weeds the path of hatred
…for your travel back
…into the mouth of the earth
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © September 6, 2019