The Weaver Bird by KOFI AWOONOR

 


The Weaver Bird by KOFI AWOONOR

The weaver bird built in our house

And laid its eggs on our only tree.

We did not want to send it away.

We watched the building of the nest

And supervised the egg-laying.

And the weaver returned in the guise of the owner.

Preaching salvation to us that owned the house.

They say it came from the west

Where the storms at sea had felled the gulls

And the fishers dried their nets by lantern light.

Its sermon is the divination of ourselves

And our new horizon limits at its nest.

But we cannot join the prayers and answers of the communicants.

We look for new homes every day,

For new altars we strive to rebuild

The old shrines defiled by the weaver's excrement.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Meja Mwangi: A Pillar of Kenyan Literature

Image
Meja Mwangi, born David Dominic Mwangi on December 27, 1948, in Nanyuki, Kenya, a region scarred by the Mau Mau uprising, stands as one of East Africa's most prolific and unflinching chroniclers of urban grit, colonial legacies, and social inequities. His pen name, "Meja," draws from the Kikuyu word for a type of bird known for its sharp, observant calls, mirroring his own keen eye for society's undercurrents. Over five decades, Mwangi has authored more than 25 novels, children's books, plays, and screenplays, blending raw realism with subtle humor to expose the fractures of postcolonial Kenya. His works, translated into languages like French, German, Portuguese, and Dutch, have not only preserved slices of Kenyan history but also influenced generations of readers and filmmakers, earning him a reputation as a "literary genius with a mighty pen." Early Life and Education Mwangi's childhood unfolded amid the turbulence of Kenya's fight for indep...
Read more

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o: The Voice of Africa’s Conscience

  Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (born in 1938 in Kenya) came from a large farming family and received his early education at Kamandura, Manguo and Kinyogori primary schools, and then Alliance High School in Kenya. He went on to study at Makerere University College (then part of the University of London) in Kampala, Uganda, and later at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. Over his career, he earned several honorary doctorates, such as a D Litt from Albright College, a PhD from Roskilde University, a D Litt from Leeds University, both a D Litt and PhD from Walter Sisulu University, a PhD from Carlstate, a D Litt from Dillard University, and another D Litt from Auckland University. He was also made an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. A versatile intellectual, Ngũgĩ was novelist, essayist, playwright, journalist, editor, scholar and activist. The Kenya of his youth was still under British colonial rule (1895–1963). As a teenager, he lived through the Mau Mau...
Read more