Library Of Africa and The African Diaspora

What the judges said Gye Nyame makes use of all the nuances one can eke out of the apparently simple, very much in the way that proverbs work, covering environmental abuses, a complicit government and the social struggles of a religion-muted people, in less than a minute. Meet the Poet Kwame Brenya is a Ghanaian…

the wheel will also be safe in the hands of an astrologer:  he’ll pray the galaxy on our sixth presidential podium- & tell us our fate. my friend wept a “Haircut” he did not give his head for/ would’ve espied this before his Titanic sank the iceberg.                                                                               he sure                                                                              will tell us myriad ill monkeys…

Kaya  – noun. meaning – load, luggage, burden. language – Hausa (Ghana)  When we are bored, we count mother’s ribs and argue about who got it right. I always win.  My cracked heels sing lullabies. I never fall asleep. These homeless truck pushers give us 10  cedis after they rape us. When we get to…

One day, the trickster will tire of being a cautionary tale. He will drop his disguises and wear his face so  well that villagers see it and quail.  Woe unto those who rewrote the lore to declare conformity king. Cleverness is not punished by its  offspring, and the trickster tires of being called a sin. …

dust motes dance   in the stream of sunlight seeping   through the narrow openings   beyond the wooden planks, exposed wiring, and mice.  here is heaven scattering;  we harvested water from these crevices.  before petrichor would filter down the dingy openings,  A’maa would be there, cradling her basin and my bowl.  drip drop tick tock  water falls…