I came across this poem that I wrote for one of my African studies courses in second year and I was gobsmacked at fact that the debate about African Literature being taught in African institutions is still contentious and unresolved. Below, is my two-cents about this issue!
African breathes, Africa sings,
Africa laughs and Africa cries
Yet all this unified motion is nowhere to be seen.
Why are our fingerprints always overshadowed by Western intellect?
When will our fingerprints dominate the global intellectual cuisine?
Why? Oh Why? Have the thoughts of our ancestral brothers and mothers been manipulated by our Western scholars?
They write, we cry,
They write, we sigh
They write and the more our continent’s persona dies!
Run! Africa Run! For this global bureaucracy is hard to overturn.
Once your African universities are overrun!
We will have nothing but international words to learn.
Write! Africa write! Let them words flow over the global coast like the River Nile.
Fight! Africa fight! Fight until our continental rhetoric drowns out the Western philosophy.
Rise! Oh dear Africa rise! So that our universities may rise above bureaucratic domination.
Dream! African dream! So that we may break free, from the very shackles that distorts the daily struggles of our people.
Print! Dear Africa print! So that from generation to generation we can dominate the global tertiary education.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YRQefxaLVg