By Alagi Yorro Jallow
Do We Have a Nation?
It’s a phantom nation
A tragic experiment
Waiting to implode
Because of the quicksand
That’s it’s foundation
It’s not if….
But when it’ll implode
There’s no nation here!
As communities
We’re incompatible
WEAREONE slogan
Sounds hollow
Emphasis on tribe
Makes us unstable
Vociferous evil spirits on social media
Aggravate the bad scenario
There’s no nation here!
We slaughter each other
At the drop of a hat
Our national anthem
Is just a song
In most of our minds
But it’s a prayer
We absent mindedly chant
Without listening
To the magic words
There’s no nation here!
Where’s the God of all creation
In this ungodliness?
Where’s the shield of justice
In this unfairness?
Where’s the plenty within our borders
In this hunger?
Where’s the dwelling in unity
In this division?
This loveless existence?
This hatred?
There’s no nation here!
Leaders are such a scandal
To the utmost degree
They’re thrust to a carefree world
By their own inclination
They’re wicked without shame
They whore on
Without punishment
In the legislature
Virtue is despised
And all vice encouraged
A Sodom of a universe
With notorious corruption of manners
There’s no nation here!
We’re are a nation
Of hopeless fatalities
Our bonds are fragile
Premised on convenience
Devoid of basics
That make a people one
A nation jaded and divided
Than any time in recent memory
We’re a desperate conglomeration
Of people called tribes
Cohesion is a pipe dream
We’re forever uneasy folks
Lumped together!!!!
There’s no nation here
A nation of extraordinary inequalities
A nation of two economies
One for the few who’ve so much
In their tiny islands of prosperity
And the other for the many
Who’ve so little
In their vast ocean of poverty
A nation cut into two
The gleaming leafy neighborhoods on one hand
And the poverty-stricken slums and countryside villages on the other
There’s no nation here!
Two nations in one
Living side by side
Living separate lives
Born in different hospitals
Live in separate neighborhoods
Riding separate modes of transport
Drinking from separate water fountains
Attending separate schools
Simply apartheid in all but name
With the select few
Living in gated manicured mansions
With tables of plenty
And the majority
In the in famed shanties
Of low self-esteem
A world of inhuman poverty
There’s no nation here
