A Poem for Congo

Congo’s dearest resource is its people;

That must enter everyone’s mind, especially Congolese people;

It is their mothers, not their minerals that’s most precious;

Their talent, not their Coltan that’s priceless;

 

Therefore:

It is their children, not their diamond that need polishing;

Their youth, not the oil that needs refining;

The education, not the mines that need investing;

Their corruption, not their timber that needs cutting;

The pain, not the ore that needs extracting;

 

It is their opportunities, not their goodwill that need exploiting;

Their final, not their row that needs exporting;

And I know:

It is back home, not in the Diaspora that action’s needed;

It is by the people, by no one else that change’s expected;

 

And I am hopeful:

For it is their wars, not their faith that’s ending;

Their suffering, not their passion that’s shrinking;

It is their day, Africa’s day that’s coming…