White Sun

Waking up, I dreamt, in a log house in Alaska
Up in the mountains, and this morning I
Walked outside and took it all in like a
New born.
Felt the blacks of my heels sink into the whites
I couldn’t ask myself how or why
I was here
Towards the edge of the pine trees I wandered
Sniffed and embraced the flaky air around me
I wanted to feel the sharp ends of the
Ice-armed leaves,
And I nettled ‘em needles with
The tips of my fingers
And watched their reaction
stain the snow below
The dream startled me so I swore
‘If I come across a deer
I’ll tell him of my travels
And my beautiful home of the sun
And the never ending spring,
And dare to only go back to the log house
if the sun’s no more,
or lie in the wretched snow till I am no more.

© lak'wab asis 2011
All rights reserved

Disclaimer: I, with intent, commit the uncommon sin of having carnal knowledge of my own verse. No apologies though, my friends have visited upon me anguish over this piece and I was left wondering if satire as a weapon should be brutal and acrimonious to light the bulb of the reader, simple or censorious.
I avoid being too obfuscate, although (I tend to find myself abstract most times) I often find myself in this trap. In pursuance of intellectual honesty, I believe addressing a theme like that in a personal way shouldn't be compromised by misdirection or misinterpretation.
This verse has gone through a lot of metamorphoses and I would presume it still growing; even the title has gone from ‘a stroll among the whites’, ‘sunny stroll among the snow’ to ‘white sun’ which of course I have no idea why I finally settled for. More dynamic however, is the interesting reactions I have gotten from friends.
I am just mortified by how us, Africans, tend to suffer from “afro-continental low self-esteem” where folks are drowning fleeing their own home. I’m not implying that some may not be validated by the suffering and utter poverty they face back home, but we cannot deny that majority are chasing that “occidental rainbow” that we all know is more or less an illusion.
I risk sounding like some 1960’s activist writer but one way or another lets face the ugly truth. Even the Western world know that this is the century for Africa and we should be proud of ourselves, I can't imagine surviving without my sun. Cultural hegemony has always been there within and amongst us even before the missionaries came with their guns and bibles and new socio-economic and political systems. In the words of Eric D. Beinhocker, The Origin of Wealth “In a world where resources are finite at any given moment, there are competitive pressures to cooperate. Over time, societies that are better able to organize themselves will socially, economically and militarily dominate societies that are less successful…..”
That explains why I will refrain from bitching on and on about a perfectly social phenomenon. How tiresome to go down a well trodden path of crying foul and not realizing that mental slavery is internal, perpetrated by external catalysts. Emancipation lies within.