🇸🇱 April 27 1961 🇸🇱
In 2018, unintentionally I started a trilogy of Independence Day poems.
The first was We Are Waiting (2018) which was turned into a visual poem produced by Young Salone and directed by Abu B. Yillah.
The second was Bittersweet Salone (2020), this is the final Independence piece entitled Dark Independence:
Light don go…
Light don kam!
Light don go…
Light don kam!
Leh wi sing am ba!
Light don go…
Light don kam!
This is a hit record in Lion Mountain
Every living generation knows it
It’s one thing that keeps us together
If it’s one thing that could keep us together…
What do you think that is?
“Sam, dis Independence e nor swit bo!”
“Na Independent or Independence?”
“Ow wi dae fo d Independent?”
We ask so many questions
Yet we have little to answer to
But when elections are around the corner suddenly all the answers are available
Politicians politricking
The economy is trickling
Animosity is thickening
It is all so sickening
Riddle me this
What goes up and never comes down?
Prices in The Republic
Ol tin go up
Res
Gari
Flour
Even plasas
We need a boost
We need a break
We need relief
We need healing
61 since 1961
And yet the journey has just begun
A battle that has yet to be won
Light don go…
Light get fo kam?
© Mina Bilkis 2022
ergo sum cogito