Still we dance these tunes by Kelvin Kellman

Our very eyes we glimpsed at the arrival of giant sails

Beheld the docking and the emergence of mankind

In cassava skin mumbling through their nose

Soon our kinsmen disappeared from batters of our chiefs

For combs, whisky, guns and mirrors

They drummed and we danced.

Our craft of time immemorial,

Our Nok and Terra-cotta, our bronze and pottery

Soon found foot in glass museums

Breeding millions by the annual

This sweat of our ancestors’ knack

Sustaining them vast terrains

But they would say: they are folks of primitive mind

They sang and we danced

So when earth’s blood was uncovered

And was on our unsophisticated land

We saw them again, doling millions for black gold

But someway the millions ebbed away

For we boast nothing of our own; - freight and trade in

And I thought I saw that knowing smile- plastered on their shrewd faces

They piped and we danced

A favourable blood have emerged

Run by expertise and innovative institutes

But we possess no such sort

Ha! They had it all along

Our imprudent leaders in Ekwensu* skin

Inspired by Esu** all the while

Have danced us all to hell 

**Esu: Deity of disorientation in Yoruba folklore

*Ekwensu: The devil in Igbo dialectal 

Kelvin Opeoluwa kellman

Editor-in-chief, 

La Charla, OAU