What Colour Are the Angels, Mama by Dele Farotimi

What Color Are The Angels, Mama

What color are the angels mama
What texture are their hairs
Do they have eyes like mine
Are their lips and noses as mine
What color are the angels mama

Is God pink like the white man
I’m taught the devil looks like me
What color are the angels mama
I don’t wanna look outta place
Is there a heaven made for us

Dele Farotimi

Dele Farotimi is a lawyer, a seasoned political activist and author. He is passionate about the birth of a new and better Nigeria. His book “Do Not Die in Their War” is a treatise on Nigeria’s contemporary political trajectories. He is a seasoned public speaker, member of Citizens’ Rally against Oppression (RAMINBA), and author. He was called to the Nigerian bar in the year 1999 and remained in active legal practice until his retirement in 2018 at the age of 50.

Not Funny! by Dele Farotimi

Not Funny

Oh! How I wish

That I could just look

And then find the grace

The grace to laugh

Perhaps as Fela

Probably shorn of mirth

But some way to wail

In the absence of tears

Fela had to look
To find cause to laugh
My senses are daily assailed
With sufficient cause
To anoint this head of dreads
With dollops of ashes
There’s always something
A cause to mourn
In the land of my birth

Arguments begun aeons afore
Before the dawn of me
Continues to rage
Fueled by the blinds
Who are meant to lead
Elevated by the deaf
Supported by the mute
If I shall dare to laugh
Aro, an inmate shall gain

I see no mirth in this land
The laughter shall be wet
Wouldn’t be joyful either
I’d probably be crying red
Crimson red as the flows
From Dapchi to Chibok
To the creeks of the Ogonis
Into the estuaries of the Ijaws
From the peaks of Jos
Into the Benue trough

If I shall laugh it’ll be wet
I’d be weeping red
For the morrows ate
Consumed by greed
Look and laugh?
Get the fetters!
Ready the chains!
If I laugh, grab me
I’d only be laughing
Because I’m mad
And so should you!

Dele Farotimi

Dele Farotimi is a lawyer, a seasoned political activist and author. He is passionate about the birth of a new and better Nigeria. His book “Do Not Die in Their War” is a treatise on Nigeria’s contemporary political trajectories. He is a seasoned public speaker, member of Citizens’ Rally against Oppression (RAMINBA), and author. He was called to the Nigerian bar in the year 1999 and remained in active legal practice until his retirement in 2018 at the age of 50.

The day is coming... by Dele Farotimi

The day is coming

The day is coming

It is inevitable.

It would dawn unexpected.

But the day of reckoning is at hand

I can feel it in my bones

That the day is at hand

An accounting shall be had

Let all who hold others down beware

That they are themselves enslaved

Even as the ones they have oppressed

The day is at hand

The captives shall be freed

Dele Farotimi

Dele Farotimi is a lawyer, a seasoned political activist and author. He is passionate about the birth of a new and better Nigeria. His book “Do Not Die in Their War” is a treatise on Nigeria’s contemporary political trajectories. He is a seasoned public speaker, member of Citizens’ Rally against Oppression (RAMINBA), and author. He was called to the Nigerian bar in the year 1999 and remained in active legal practice until his retirement in 2018 at the age of 50.

Weep for Shame!!! by Dele Farotimi

Weep for Shame!!!

Adorn your sackclothes

Anoint your heads with ashes

Wail at dusk, and be not consoled

Blessed beyond belief

But beggars become!

Weep! And be not consoled

Weep for shame, debased, debauched

Lost to lust, and immune to shame

The brooding hen, that eats its own eggs

The lion that snacks on its own cubs

They live with mortality forgotten

Content to feast on all the morrows

The firewood evidences the tree that was

Even as the flames are succeeded by the ashes

When the banana tree is felled

In its stead would several abound

When our season is done as it must

What shall the victims inherit from us?

Weep for shame and be not consoled

They will inherit the paradise being built today

Colonists and imperialists would be long gone

Replaced by Messers WhoWeDon’tKnow yet

No hypocritical protestations about human rights

All is cash and carry in the market to come

Be inconsolable, whatever the pleas

Just this once, be covered in shame

How will you explain your failure to them

Will you blame it on some other “them”?

When your flame is done, would there be ashes?

Would your plantain shoots survive?

The coward might very well endure his peace

The peace purchased at the cost of his peace

The Brave’s walls might lie in ruins

But even the Careful’s walls shall yet collapse

All of Creation, marching inexorably

Behold tomorrow now, and wail today

Dele Farotimi

Dele Farotimi is a lawyer, a seasoned political activist and author. He is passionate about the birth of a new and better Nigeria. His book “Do Not Die in Their War” is a treatise on Nigeria’s contemporary political trajectories. He is a seasoned public speaker, member of Citizens’ Rally against Oppression (RAMINBA), and author. He was called to the Nigerian bar in the year 1999 and remained in active legal practice until his retirement in 2018 at the age of 50.

Once Upon A NANS by Dele Farotimi

Once Upon A NANS

Where were they, when we bled?
Where were they, when we wept?
Were they shown the scars?
Have they seen the severed limbs?
Who has shown them the graves?

Did we tell them our stories?
Have we shown them the way?
What exactly did we expect?
Of a generation sold, at birth?
What heroes have we raised?

They have sold out, we bellow!
Sold out to whom? We should ask
The same slavers that bought the fathers
Have returned to harvest the offsprings
Allooting continua! Enslavement assured

Who has told of the wars of Ekpoma?
Have they heard of the dead at Samaru?
Do they know of Adekunle, omo Adepegba?
Who has told of Kunle Sonowo?
And we condemn them, who we failed to lead

When we’re done condemning the victims
Perhaps we should all, the mirror behold
How has these children, differed from us
Who behold the lies, tongue tied
For fear the food should fall from our mouths

Dele Farotimi

Dele Farotimi is a lawyer, a seasoned political activist and author. He is passionate about the birth of a new and better Nigeria. His book “Do Not Die in Their War” is a treatise on Nigeria’s contemporary political trajectories. He is a seasoned public speaker, member of Citizens’ Rally against Oppression (RAMINBA), and author. He was called to the Nigerian bar in the year 1999 and remained in active legal practice until his retirement in 2018 at the age of 50.

Massa Ain't Gone by Dele Farotimi

Massa Ain't Gone

Him’s just round the corner

Him own all of the corn

Cause him’s just a con

And him call me a coon

Massa left the “Nationalists”
Only three nations heard
Only three summoned
Amongst hundreds of nations

Independent anew
Lies planted in fertile soils
Food soon aplenty
Undertakers and carrion

But Massa ain’t gone
Alahu Akbar and hallelujah!
Red Cross and the red hued crescent
Massa is kind, simply to a fault

Massa ain’t gone to be sure
Our Demoncrazy is growing
Learning from the feet of Massa
The plantation is booming anew

Dele Farotimi

Dele Farotimi is a lawyer, a seasoned political activist and author. He is passionate about the birth of a new and better Nigeria. His book “Do Not Die in Their War” is a treatise on Nigeria’s contemporary political trajectories. He is a seasoned public speaker, member of Citizens’ Rally against Oppression (RAMINBA), and author. He was called to the Nigerian bar in the year 1999 and remained in active legal practice until his retirement in 2018 at the age of 50.

Get a Life... by Dele Farotimi

Get a Life..

To live forever, be prepared to die,

To live on purpose, be shorn of fear,

Devoid of fear, we cease to care,

For the scions of men, we live sans fear,

Fears are chains, designed to bound.

Faith, the breaker of chains woven by fear.  

Dele Farotimi

Dele Farotimi is a lawyer, a seasoned political activist and author. He is passionate about the birth of a new and better Nigeria. His book “Do Not Die in Their War” is a treatise on Nigeria’s contemporary political trajectories. He is a seasoned public speaker, member of Citizens’ Rally against Oppression (RAMINBA), and author. He was called to the Nigerian bar in the year 1999 and remained in active legal practice until his retirement in 2018 at the age of 50.

Would Heaven Be Kinder? Dele Farotimi

Would Heaven Be Kinder?

"Would your heaven be kinder to me. Are we going to have a section for me. I cannot be twice destined for hell. I have already lived as a black man."

I am born endangered wherever I turn
It doesn’t matter, where I am born
From the sands of the Sahara
To the shores of the mighty Atlantic

The trees that grows on the rocks
The hardy shrubs of the Sahara
They have better odds than me
I am named after my murderers

I am the African child!
I am the nameless slave!
I am the one that you daily choke!
I am the one you have made hollow!

I worship your gods!
Mine watched as you fettered me
The chief priests traded in men
The chiefs became traders of brothers

When you tired of feeding slaves
You destroyed my holy places
Endangered in your protectorate
Enslaved, exploited, in your colonies

The African gods are unknown
Esu laalu became born again
Reborn as satan and or sheitan
The heresy of Abraham’s seeds

 

The Allah of Ishmael, Son of Abe
Was called to justify my fetters
The Bible came with the slaving ships
Ajayi Crowther did not Moses become

Today I wander, rootless, void
Emptied of the essence of who I am
Enslaved at home, in chains abroad
Where is my place under the sun

The cousins taken in chains
They are games hunted by men
Trophies to be displayed in proof
Of the inhumanity of man, to man

We that are enslaved at home
Have long preferred the chains abroad
Only the insane have ignored to flee
Death stalks by day, noon, and dusk

The heaven promised to Abe’s boys
Would there be space for me too
Or would the heaven meant for me
Be as desolate as the land of my birth

Would your heaven be kinder to me
Are we going to have a section for me
I cannot be twice destined for hell
I have already lived as a black man

Dele Farotimi

Dele Farotimi is a lawyer, a seasoned political activist and author. He is passionate about the birth of a new and better Nigeria. His book “Do Not Die in Their War” is a treatise on Nigeria’s contemporary political trajectories. He is a seasoned public speaker, member of Citizens’ Rally against Oppression (RAMINBA), and author. He was called to the Nigerian bar in the year 1999 and remained in active legal practice until his retirement in 2018 at the age of 50.

I Am Not Black by Dele Farotimi

I Am Not Black….

(They Never Stopped The Trade)

Lambs might be black
And yes, some be white
I’ve seen a few that’s tan
And quite a few, are speckled

Oh! The beautiful jaguar
Some as black as coal
The darkness of night
But I am not black

I could be chocolate
Hewn from the inedible pods
Grown in my fields
Owned by me for you

I might even be coffee
You own those fields too
I send you the sacked beans
You send me my sack clothes

None of them is white
And I’ve seen a few that’s pink
And they’re also red sometime
Always a good time to flee

Be not fooled by the claim
I be not black, and you ain’t white
All we are, are human beings
I bleed red, and so do you

But how do I the racist fool blame
Have our fathers not declared
Your usage of your chattels
Shall assay its value for others

George Floyd was his name
Trophy he was, for a racist cop
Tina Ezekwe was her name
Killed by a Killandgo in Lagos

Oceans apart, united in death
Untimely, unnecessary, inhuman
Systemic, endemic, pandemic
Slave masters, traders, enforcers

The corrupt Africans loot
Loots kept in oyinbo vaults
We are fantastically corrupt
And they are fantastically angelic

Brethren, look again
They never stopped the trade
They merely changed the rules
The slave markets are booming

Dele Farotimi

Dele Farotimi is a lawyer, a seasoned political activist and author.  He is passionate about the birth of a new and better Nigeria. His book “Do Not Die in Their War” is a treatise on Nigeria’s contemporary political trajectories. He is a seasoned public speaker, member of Citizens’ Rally against Oppression (RAMINBA), and author. He was called to the Nigerian bar in the year 1999 and remained in active legal practice until his retirement in 2018 at the age of 50.