Poem
Chris Magadza
QUIET DIPLOMACY
QUIET DIPLOMACY
QUIET DIPLOMACY
Of oil wells nor nuclear programmes,
Fundamentalists
Nor drug barons
We boast not.
Our terrorism is
Homegrown
For domestic
Consumption
With no export value.
Torture and mutilations
We cover with
State media,
Lest we be confused
For Sierra Leone,
Or Rwanda or Dafur
Massacres and genocide
We package
With blue ribbons
As souvenirs
For Africa summits:
No United Nations
Tribunals here.
Not genital mutilation
Nor Sharia stonings
But AIDS-propagating rape
Is the daily ritual
Of our girls . . . and
Their mothers
To the obligate attendance
Of their sons
And husbands
Blow upon blow,
To the deafening applause
Of the African Union,
We silently bare the pain
In the amphitheatre
Of quiet diplomacy
God bless Africa.
God bless Zimbabwe.
Fundamentalists
Nor drug barons
We boast not.
Our terrorism is
Homegrown
For domestic
Consumption
With no export value.
Torture and mutilations
We cover with
State media,
Lest we be confused
For Sierra Leone,
Or Rwanda or Dafur
Massacres and genocide
We package
With blue ribbons
As souvenirs
For Africa summits:
No United Nations
Tribunals here.
Not genital mutilation
Nor Sharia stonings
But AIDS-propagating rape
Is the daily ritual
Of our girls . . . and
Their mothers
To the obligate attendance
Of their sons
And husbands
Blow upon blow,
To the deafening applause
Of the African Union,
We silently bare the pain
In the amphitheatre
Of quiet diplomacy
God bless Africa.
God bless Zimbabwe.
Harare, 2004
© 2006, Chris Magadza
From: Father and other poems
Publisher: Poetry International Web,
From: Father and other poems
Publisher: Poetry International Web,
Poems
Poems of Chris Magadza
Close
QUIET DIPLOMACY
Of oil wells nor nuclear programmes,
Fundamentalists
Nor drug barons
We boast not.
Our terrorism is
Homegrown
For domestic
Consumption
With no export value.
Torture and mutilations
We cover with
State media,
Lest we be confused
For Sierra Leone,
Or Rwanda or Dafur
Massacres and genocide
We package
With blue ribbons
As souvenirs
For Africa summits:
No United Nations
Tribunals here.
Not genital mutilation
Nor Sharia stonings
But AIDS-propagating rape
Is the daily ritual
Of our girls . . . and
Their mothers
To the obligate attendance
Of their sons
And husbands
Blow upon blow,
To the deafening applause
Of the African Union,
We silently bare the pain
In the amphitheatre
Of quiet diplomacy
God bless Africa.
God bless Zimbabwe.
Fundamentalists
Nor drug barons
We boast not.
Our terrorism is
Homegrown
For domestic
Consumption
With no export value.
Torture and mutilations
We cover with
State media,
Lest we be confused
For Sierra Leone,
Or Rwanda or Dafur
Massacres and genocide
We package
With blue ribbons
As souvenirs
For Africa summits:
No United Nations
Tribunals here.
Not genital mutilation
Nor Sharia stonings
But AIDS-propagating rape
Is the daily ritual
Of our girls . . . and
Their mothers
To the obligate attendance
Of their sons
And husbands
Blow upon blow,
To the deafening applause
Of the African Union,
We silently bare the pain
In the amphitheatre
Of quiet diplomacy
God bless Africa.
God bless Zimbabwe.
Harare, 2004
From: Father and other poems
QUIET DIPLOMACY
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