A SERVANT: A KING? Here comes a mansa Showing off all his majesty The paraphenalia of his offices All reflected in acted opulence Smashing the wits of the citizenry Here come the people Not hiding their poverty From distant and diverse homes Their sovereignty reversed into homage In the presence of a robed king I shall convert your poverty to riches Making urban areas which are rural Giving you schools and hospitals Taking electricity and water to your homes Making power outage history But you are the mansa The one we serve as master Being the owner of our things The sole model for our thinking Because you are the king Since I took the scepter I have honestly rendered my services Giving paramountcy to your interests Ensuring they impact my intents To promote the common good But we are mere beholders Have we ever had such holdings In the scale of things high To measure yours in height We believe you are the king We must all stand united And give strength to our union To ward off our enemies Who try to cause our end In the name of patriotism But where are all your reserves You claimed to have endless reservoires Of resources that come from high Being the one at the helm Things from their source must flow I shall never tolerate subversives In the ranks of my subjects Who try to create alternatives With the hope of bringing alterations In the scheme of things here The people stood bewildered And jolted into the wilderness By rampant shiftings in position By the speaker on the podium Claiming both servant and king In a country along a river Modern rites are performed in ancient robes For there imposed is a diety That presides over their days Coming from their constrained thinking The oracles of the country Control all the council's themes On some fake pedestals posed Which form walls around their palaces Keeping them in and the people out BY: Omar Joof. _________________________________________________________________ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcomm&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~