Drawing on the immortal words of Thomas Sankara, Kingwa Kamencu calls on all those concerned for Africa to ‘dare to invent the future’, in an opening speech at the Oxford University Africa Society ‘Pan-Africanism for a new generation’ conference.

Sometimes… I suspect
I have not played this ‘African’ card
well enough…

A belated thank you for publishing my poem . That was very exciting, thank you!

You do such a great service for Africa. Pambazuka will be very instrumental to realising the dream for real African unity, that's a prophecy. It is all very much appreciated.

Best wishes and keep up the wonderful job.

Poetry is dangerous,
Subversive.

It’s that so often talked about
Double edged sword
That cuts both ways.
It’s more lethal
Than Zuma’s Umshini Wami,
More deadly than the now ubiquitous
Post election violence panga
More than Rwanda’s genocidal machete.
It’s deadlier than Sierra Leonese, Sudanese child soldiers,
More powerful than the Shona-Ndebele, Majimaji, Mau Mau wars put together.

It can bless you
Or curse you
Deliver you to your grave-
Ask Pushkin.

It can build continents,
Empires, kingdoms,
And just as quickly,
Tear them down.
Ask Africa

Be careful how you use your words,
What you confess,
You will, without a single doubt
Soon possess.

So let’s sing dangerously progressive
Subversively possessive
Poetry for our motherland,
Africa.

Africa will arise
Not by Zuma’s Umshini Wami,
Or the P.E.V.’s menacing panga,
Rwanda’s machete,
North African child soldiers
Or Shona-Ndebele, Majimaji, Mau Mau resistance ire.

Africa will arise
By our dreamy
Amazing words,
Our outlandish prophecies,
Our ridiculously zany confessions
Of a better beautiful, peaceful, abundant Africa
Whose reach
Is within
Our possession.