When we were kings

When we were kings,
The minstrels, wiped our asses,
And honey dripped from vipers' tongues.
It wasn't the greatest of times,
But who is to tell it was the worst.
Then the man came.
Then the belching snake came.
Then the fire spitting stick came.
The elephants were lost first,
The lion king became a coward,
The waganda were subdued,
And the people of the ganyi country afraid.
When we were kings;
Awich the courageous,
Andereya the christian,
Kasagama the wise,
Chwa the young,
The man came,
Cross in right,
Gun in left.
We called him sir
but who was to tell,
he couldn't even have been fit,
to wipe our asses.


Seize the cannons,
Sail the Nile,
and cross the oceans,
their women will kiss our feet,
but not the lips.
bring me a pound of flesh,
but not one drop of blood.
There is a revolution,
But we can only whisper.
Hide the women and children,
Destroy cow and goat,
But Spare the beads,
Our women shall mourn with those.
Our women shall rejoice with those.

There is a revolution,
That we can only speak of in parable,
For when the man came,
He too speaks our language,
He too knows the whisper of the wind,
But the stories of old he knows not,
For those he burnt at the great fire,
The fire of his mistaken kingship.
He has the stick of fire,
and we don't,
But we have the stories,
And our mouths as yet intact,
He has the belching snake,
But we have the graves of the ancestors,
And they won't let us forget.

There is a revolution,
But we still whisper,
We shout yet not,
Its still afar off,
Or perhaps near,
As their messiah's return,
You never know,
It too comes as a thief in the night,
And when it does,
And when it does,
then the drums shall echo through the night,
And we shall be kings again;
Awich will rise, no longer afraid,
Andereya will carry cross and gun too,
Kasagama will see into the future,
And Chwa, a man; with a lion heart.

D e Wasake
19 september 2009