TRAMMELLED ON THE JESUS OF LÜBECK - Ibrahim Adeniji
Hope was tweaked on the shores of West Africa Home of the gods and the sires of earth Hearth of men with shades of night Honed to plough lands and chase the wild Live free and fruit the child A place where nothing surpassed our ascendants But a different sun berthed on us And it brought the darkest cover our land has ever seen Snatched like the field of poachers One by one men were plucked like fruit from a vineyard Selectively graded by agility and vendure Loaded on an English carrack to live out in servility A vessel as dreadful as a war tank Branded and shackled to be kept in the belly of this beast Guarded to ensure escape is a fruitless feat And then we listened as the great tide washed us away Many trembled as the ship pierced through the storms The great foggy passage to merchants and lost swarms Suns and moons passed in this horrific trunk First our beliefs, then all our dreams sunk The white coloured people fed us crumbles and a mountain of despair Made us suffer like to nothi...