My silence
your silence
our silence
the silence of the vociferous
in the face of the challenges
we all face as a people
as a country
as a nation –
that we once thought we were
that we would forever be;
that we once aspired to be,
that we are supposed to be
under one flag, one anthem,
one creed, one pledge
in the land that we love
that we supposedly love,
now shockingly put on hold,
brazenly checkmated
by our silence and silencing
of voices as we give our backs
to those things that matter,
those things that should matter,
made possible by the death of our creed –
Unity, Freedom, and Justice –
sepulchered under the grave
“it is our turn”, “it is their turn”:
Let us mute our silence
for the realm of the free
to enjoy its creed as we sing
“High we exalt thee, realm of the free”!
Give Us Free
(‘Give us free”, Sengbeh Pieh in Amistad )
Saidu Bangura, Praia, February 1, 2025.
Give us free! Give us free!
O high and mighty Siamese
give us free from your claws!
Give us freedom from hunger,
the hunger you have produced
in a fertile land where hunger
should not have existed, not be.
Give us freedom from water wells
so we can enjoy the pure lifegiving
liquid nature blesses us with septuple;
Give us freedom from the darkness
you have plunged our nation into
so our country can shine as it did
before the clasping of your claws
on our most wanted resources –
the beauty of our human diversity.
Give us free! Give us free, o Siamese!
Give us freedom from your division;
the division you have sown among us
has chopped off our unity and justice;
has clamped unity, freedom, justice,
the core of our existence as a people.
And like Sengbeh Pieh’s outburst
I, like a volcanic eruption, burst out:
Give Us Free! Give Us Free
O high and mighty Siamese,
Give Us Free! Give Us Free!
so our nation can see progress!
Unchain us, unclamp us, unclasp us
from this dungeon of impoverishment:
Give Us Free, o scrofulous Siamese!
