Ode to Hunger by Niyi Osundare

Hunger walks the streets
With a retinue of naked ribs
Agbaga!, Hunger walks the streets
With a retinue of naked ribs
Behind him a legion of tax-gatherers
Bearing bleeding curses and flaying whips

Yam’s new name is “Mafowokanmi”*
Bread has raced past the laborer’s reach
Yes, yam’s new name is “Mafowokami”
While bread has sprinted past the laborer’s reach
There is no written law in this land
That desperate Want can never breach

Rumbling stomachs, dizzy motions
Sleepless eyes at war with the clock
Say, rumbling stomachs, dizzy motions
Sleepless eyes at war with the clock
Kwashiorkor children parade the roads
In a land beyond shame, immune to shock

A desperate mother gives up
Her baby for a bag of rice
Eewo**!, desperate mother gives up
Her baby for a bag of rice
Her only iro*** flutters in the wind
Held together by a league of lice

In this land of blind and soulless rulers
Hunger walks the streets, a cold, oblivious Emperor
Say, in this land of blind and soulless rulers
Hunger walks the streets, a cold, oblivious Emperor
To the few who have, this is a rich, caring nation
To the many so deprived, it is nothing short of a gigantic error

*Mafowokanmi - Touch me not
*Iro - A Yoruba woman's wrapper

NIYI OSUNDARE

Niyi Osundare was born in 1947 in Ikere-Ekiti, Nigeria. He is a prolific writer and highly valued literary critic. In December 2014, Osundare was awarded the Nigerian National Merit Award (NNMA) for academic excellence.