Tradition or sedition?
walk with me to the statue of Kimathi
be distracted not by sounds of sirens
or the hurrying hues of city humanity.
walk with me to the statue of Kimathi
then lift your eyes like begging hands
to the rifle he clenches like his destiny
then perhaps you will learn not to ask
why i ask to die with fists full of stone
after i take to the jungle of concrete
to resist those who muzzle my mouth
then you pump gas above the street
before pumping bullets into my youth.
_
BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS
* This poem is dedicated to George Onyango and Ishmael Chacha, who were shot by a police officer in Kisumu on 16 January 2008 during Kenya's post-election violence.
* J.K.S. Makokha is the Kenyan author of 'Reading M.G. Vassanji: A Contextual Approach to Asian African Fiction' (2009). He teaches courses in African and South Asian literatures at the Institut für Englische Philologie at Freie Universität Berlin in Germany.
* J.K.S. Makokha copyright © 2010
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