Begin forwarded message:
From: Akwasi Aidoo <akwasi.aidoo@gmail.com>
Date: June 10, 2019 at 3:31:15 PM CDT
To: Akwasi Aidoo <akwasi.aidoo@gmail.com>
Subject: In Memory of the Indefatigable Champions of Social Justice (Without Typos)
Dear Friends & Colleagues,
Warm greetings! Yes, it's time for us to warm up to the spirits of those who never gave up and always stood up for human rights, freedom, democracy and equity.
Today, as you probably know, is the 39th anniversary of when a defiant message and call to keep on keeping on by Nelson Mandela that was smuggled out of Robben Island prison, at great risk, was made public to South Africans struggling to end apartheid. The statement went: "UNITE! MOBILISE! FIGHT ON! BETWEEN THE ANVIL OF UNITED MASS ACTION AND THE HAMMER OF THE STRUGGLE WE SHALL CRUSH APARTHEID!"
Madiba!!! He never gave up, except on the corruption of power when he handed over the presidency after serving only one term (smile). And, one of his quotes eternally rings true: "It always seems impossible until it's done."
A pertinent poem is warranted on this occasion, methinks. It's a poem by the ever-globalizing Malawian social justice poet, Jack Mapanje, after his release from detention under the Banda dictatorship. The poem bears on the need for more international exchanges, understanding and solidarity among advocates of human rights, democracy, peace (and especially among young people).
Here, enjoy (followed by an innerving lovely song):
On David Constantine's Poem
By Jack Mapanje
Your poem for Irina Ratushinskaya
On your birthday has reached these
Putrid African prison walls it
Was probably not meant for;
What cheer distant voices must bring
Another poet crackling in the Russian
Winters of icicle cells.
Yet even in this dungeon where
Day after day we fester within
The walls of the tropical summers
Of our Life President
And his hangers-on, even here,
What fresh blood flushes
When an unexpected poem arrives,
What fire, what energy
Inflames these fragile bones!
Indeed we have the verses in common,
Notwithstanding
The detention camps
The laws against poems
The black or white
Traitor or patriot
Binaries;
But secure in your
Voices of solidarity,
We'll crush the crocodiles
That crack our brittle bones.
Do not falter then, brother,
Do not waver, dear brethren,
But craft on the verses
Whose ceaseless whisper resonates
Beyond the Whitehalls of our dreams!
The song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlK7eGsAu84 NB: the 2nd song in the series, Kaira (Peace) is also worthy of your busy Monday (smile).
With Peace & Love,
Akwasi
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