Forty Acres and a Mule

Asante Cuba

38 Asante Cuba Today they chant an ode Amandla! Apartheid is dead From the Big bush To the Mean-and-empty streets, The homes of broken dreams They wrap themselves in a flag, torn ‘We tricked the simpletons,’ they whisper in codes Marching to the sounds of a band, absent A band that must play Another tune For another people In another place, this time From the Kgalahadi to the Kilimanjaro From Aksum to Goree Carrying the message of the drums Of Ogun and Oduduwa For the Cuba child far away Lost away in their time Ever present in the hearts Of your sibling Come, Cuba child, come Sit by Obatala You, the corner rock of Mwenumotapa They tried in vain to dislodge This band will sing and play for you With Ogun, Orisha and Obatala you will dance To the music ‘Asante Cuba’ 39 We will sing, loud A music running deep in our veins Like the Nile of blood you bled in Angola To soothe our scorched arteries A river, thick, to blind the Shark On which, in safety, we paddle our canoes Dance, Cuba, dance This morning dawns for you The Kings of Evil Will not drop a cowry into your bowl Still, you will dance, Damsel Cuba With the blood of your womb came forth this African child they say they celebrate We will beat the drum And you will dance, Cuba Mother here understands Never to throw the baby with the bath water Asante Cuba, arriba For you and because of you This morning dawns Notes: Arriba – (invocation) Arise Ogun – Youruba deity of iron and other metallic Crafts Oduduwa – Yoruba deity, progenitor of the race Obatala – Youruba deity of Creation (of the human body) Orisha – Yoruba deity, of the (different) Elements of nature; the personal god 40 These deities form the core of the Santeria ‘religion,’ [a.k.a Lacumi] practiced in Cuba and which has its roots in Yoruba belief systems transported to the ‘new’ World by African slaves Arriba Cuba Arriba, Arriba, Cuba A revolution assailed and terrorized A revolution that dares still To dream – and survive Ten henchmen, fifty iron years Too dumb and clumsy to admit defeat Too chicken to cross the bridge of reconciliation Too eager for a gory feast Of their elephant dreams Too oblivious to the sunbird’s resolve: Because you have learnt to shoot without missing, I will fly without perching Arriba, Arriba, Cuba Let a thousand odes ring out ...