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…