(Composed on 24 March 2020)
I know, I know,
It threatens the common gestures of human bonding
The handshake,
The hug
The shoulders we give each other to cry on
The Neighborliness we take for granted
So much that we often beat our breasts
Crowing about rugged individualism,
Disdaining nature, pissing poison on it even, while
Claiming that property has all the legal rights of personhood
Murmuring gratitude for our shares in the gods of capital.
Oh how now I wish I could write poetry in English,
Or any and every language you speak
So I can share with you, words that
Wanjikũ, my Gĩkũyũ mother, used to tell me:
Gũtirĩ ũtukũ ũtakĩa:
No night is so Dark that,
It will not end in Dawn,
Or simply put,
Every night ends with dawn.
Gũtirĩ ũtukũ ũtakĩa.
This darkness too will pass away
We shall meet again and again
And talk about Darkness and Dawn
Sing and laugh maybe even hug
Nature and nurture locked in a green embrace
Celebrating every pulsation of a common being
Rediscovered and cherished for real
In the light of the Darkness and the new Dawn.
Written as a response to Doggerel by neighbor Janet DiVincenzo, and offerings by Mukoma wa Ngugi, of Cornell University, and Naveen Kishore of Seagull Publishers, Kolkata, India.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is a world-renown writer, literary, and social theorist. His many novels, short stories, plays, essays, monographs, and articles have had an extraordinary impact on global literature and theory, especially among scholars and theorists of African literature and thought and those studying anti-colonialism and struggles for dignity, freedom, and liberation of the people at times referred to as the Damned of the Earth. Consult this site for a list of his books: https://ngugiwathiongo.com/books/. His accolades include many honorary doctorates and prizes such as the Caribbean Philosophical Association’s Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista Lifetime Achievement Award (2013), The Paul Robeson Award for Artistic Excellence, Political Conscience and Integrity (1992); Gwendolyn Brooks Center Contributors Award for Significant Contribution to the Black Literary Arts (1994); Fonlon-Nichols Prize 1996); Distinguished Africanist Award by the New York African Studies Association (1996);
Nonino International Prize for Literature; 2001 Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Cabinet. He is an Honorary Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2003) and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2014). His academic appointment is Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Irvine. To learn more about Professor Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, please consult the following sites:
https://ngugiwathiongo.com/about/
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ngugi-wa-Thiongo
