Recently Ousted President Ali Bongo of Gabon’s Noise Orchestra
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 31: President of Gabonese Republic Ali Bongo Ondimba arrives for the working dinner for the heads of delegations at the Nuclear Security Summit on the South Lawn of the White House March 31, 2016 in Washington, D.C.. (Photo by Ron Sachs-Pool/Getty Images)
ALI BONGO’S NOISE ORCHESTRA
By Austin Isikhuemen (Guest writer)
He thought he was next to God
The young man with variegated jerry curls
The inheritor of iniquitous thiefdom
Massive head with miniscule grey matter
Sired by Oman Bongo Ondimba
Gabon’s forty-two-year potentate
Did rumour not say Ali is Nigerian?
Arrived with Biafran’s war orphans?
Saw him sing Rap songs on stage
Throw pauperized Gabonese into a frenzy
Momentarily forgetting their hunger and pain
Gyrating to the silly catcalls of their nemesis
Looking forlorn in his Residence
Built with the people’s commonwealth
Ordering us like he was wont to do
To make noise and make some noise.
That message of hopelessness
Was not meant for the Gabonese
Else it would have been in French
Inherited lingo of their exploiter-in-chief
We indeed made noise to ripe fruits
Thinking they have unlimited tenancy
In palatial residences across Africa
Kigali, Yaoundé, Lome, Malabo, Kampala
That transition bell that tolls uncontrollably
With footprints across the Sahel
Dipping a tentative foot in the Gulf of Guinea
Could eastwards move after biya-mbasogo dance
Let the new kids on the block know too
This dance is not about them, but the lifted yoke
Lest they start dreaming of endless nights
Of bliss in the people’s Residence they seized
