Hama Tuma
OUR SAVIOR THE PANGA
The hatred is buried deep
in our bones
Only the panga can bring it out
to give it life.
Limbs are chopped off, backs slashed,
decapitated heads, young and old, tumble
down to the red earth, bloody,
the panga has worked.
Only the panga can give life
to our historic hate.
Only the panga can dig out
the savage in us all
turn us into an Intrahamwe
only the panga can give us back courage.
Bedeno and Arbagugu are in Ethiopia
not Burundi - Rwanda
Prince Johnson's men
(who cut Samuel Doe to pieces)
are in Liberia
the warlords are not found on!y in Somalia
and the fanatics in more places
other than Algeria.
Short as a knife long as a machete
no matter the name. The panga,
the collective symbol of hate,
the flower of our shame