Meditation

On a morning of winter cold, I was rushing towards the train station. In ten minutes my train would leave the platform. But I was still fifteen minutes away. My hands freezing, my head dizzy, my feet heavy, I wished I had wings to fly and escape all this pressure. 

To ease the stress, my brain resigned into a hopeful imagination: the warmth inside the house, the comfortable bed, the sweet music, the delicious food, the peace of seclusion! Now six minutes away and the train was leaving in five minutes. How time flies when you don’t think about missing the train, I thought.

I hurried my pace. I was not going to miss this train.

As I turned right, ahead was a young woman dragging along in slow motion as if her feet would not let her move. What is wrong with her, I thought, trying to figure out how to get ahead of her in this narrow way. But I slowed my own pace thinking: she is walking towards the same station; she is probably going for the same train. If she is walking as slowly, it is okay for me to stop rushing. Two minutes left but I was still four minutes away. How time flies when you get distracted, I thought again.

And just then, it hit me. What if she was not going to the station? What if she was going to the station but not to get this train? What if she was only going to meet someone? I was going to miss my train following someone whose goals and plans were not the same as mine. I was going to ruin my day concentrating on somebody else’s life instead of my own.

The doors closed right behind me as I stepped inside the train. Plunged into deep meditation I thought, if that is not the mistake most of us make today! Constantly comparing our life to others, how often we miss the goal! Always wanting to be like others, how easily we fail to be who we are meant to be!

The train carried along the green fields. Looking through the window and into the sky, the stillness of the heavens deepened my thoughts. On our way to heaven, how easy it is to miss eternity because we followed a certain brother or sister. As long as we keep in mind that glorious morning and the grandeur of our heavenly retrouvaille, as long as we think of the beauty of that New Jerusalem and the eternal peace away from the madness of this world, we do just fine and the Coming of our Lord seems much closer to us.

But we miss the goal when we follow the mass. Brother so and so are also going to the rapture yet they still do this and that so it should be okay for us to do it too, we think. That very ‘spiritual’ sister still does this or that and she can’t miss eternity so we can do it too, we like to say.

We fail to be ready because we base our experience on the movement of the crowd. If the pastor spends a year preaching about the rapture, we are all anxious and needing to put things in order. If the believers around us think the rapture will happen the following year, we all rush into ‘repentance’ and listen to sermons and pray ten times a day. If that year passes and nothing happens and some say the Lord might still be giving us sometime, we slow our pace. After all, we all go to the same churches and believe the same Message so it should be okay to act the same. We follow those who are ahead of us; never the One who is Above us and In us.

Just as certain as I was going to miss that train if I had carried on following the pace of the woman before me, we are going to miss this rapture if we carry on following the movements around us. The Lord asked of us one thing: watch and pray. Unless we have Him in mind constantly through the good and the bad times, unless we are ready to say ‘Even so, come Lord Jesus’ under any circumstance, we will surely miss Him when He does come. “It may be morn, it may be night or noon, I know He’s coming soon”

He lives in my heart!

I could hear cries

As I approached le lieu du crime

On a dirty dark road

Around an unknown young child

Covered with blood – no identity

I could feel a connection;

Some sort of deep sympathy

For that faceless child

As I dragged my feet home;

What mother at this time of the night

Leaves their child cross a dark road – alone?

I could sense anger –

As my eyelid closed up to tears;

I should have recognised him,

I could have saved him!

O, what pain! Tell me how much pain

Did he have to suffer?

I could see closed eyes

Through his now white face

As they brought him in –

The small wooden box was

Too much confinement

For a young boy as lively as he –

I could see two broken arms

On a eleven years-old boy

Who had never broken a finger –

As he laid there

I could see closed eyes

On a face that looked rather curious –

The end of his lips

Gave the impression of a smile –

The same sad smile he had the very last time I saw him!

I could hold my brother’s hand

As we brought his body to its next residence

Too secluded a place for

Un garcon hosptalier!

As we dropped our last flowers,

I find comfort in knowing he had gone Home

I couldn’t say goodbye,

I did not realise he was gone –

Grief would be painful later on

As I sensed his concrete absence

But he lives on in my heart and dreams

Reminding me he is in a better place

I don’t have to worry about him getting hurt – anymore

I can sense his presence in my heart

And six years on, Rigson still lives

ALL DONE, NOTHING DONE!

How do you make your voice heard in the midst of such a noisy crowd? How can your talent be handpicked from a field of talents? What do you give to a humanity that has already been given everything?

History tells of great men and women that have shaped the world. Civilisation after civilisation, thinkers, dreamers, writers and researchers have laid the foundations for every aspect of our lives. Darwin, Einstein, Plato, Dicey, De Gaulle, Durkheim, Marx, Nietzsche, de Beauvoir, Shakespeare, Shelley, Dickinson, Voltaire, Moliere are some of the names we all have to hear about at some point in our life. There is an endless list of absolutely genius minds that have existed and have changed the course of history.

 Human beings with flesh and blood, unsatisfied with their social, cultural, economic and political realities brought about the changes that we look on with amazement today. From the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, from the English civil wars to the French and Russian revolutions, the world has undergone serious changes and it feels like everything that had to be done in this world has already been done.

What can we create that will be new? The industrial revolution and modernisation are no strange terms. What can man make today that will truly amaze the world? Planes, cars, printing machines, phones, all sorts of technologies already exist.  From farming to medicine and beyond, there is absolutely no area that has been left untouched. 

There won’t be any more Benjamin Franklin or Alexander Graham Bell. Any scientific discovery today will only build upon what has already been established. Literary genres have been well established. Political ideologies are now well defined. Religious beliefs are well founded. Anything that will be done today will only be an all-too-common realisation, a replica of what we are already accustomed to, if not a disgraced exception to mainstream acceptance.

In the twenty-first century, we therefore have a set of ‘acquis’. There is no need to risk creating another political ideology when socialism, conservatism and democracy are rooted in our system. Why should we find a better cure for headache when paracetamol has done the trick all these years? What other way is there to instantly communicate from a distance apart from our telephones and computers? 

There is nobody to rise and act in the face of the Migration Crisis that is hitting Europe. There won’t be any more men who will fight to blood for the political and economic freedom of African lands. Every country in Africa has their independence day so what more can we ask for?

The last genius died when the last person to invent something original and new on earth died. We can’t find solutions to global catastrophes that are challenging us today. There aren’t enough brains to come up with effective solutions to terror and epidemic and poverty today. They do not make thinking brains anymore.

That is our attitude today and every one of us is guilty. We silently watch our world decay. We accept that creativity died with our forefathers. We assume that we have nothing left to do. We like to think that the world has already reached its final destination. No more dream. No visions left. Youth is but a wasted time spent on unnecessary social media esclavagism, and life is but a routine of already existing customs.

But it mustn’t be the case. We have been taught wrongly. We have been led to assume that the world is composed of America and Europe only. We believe our reality is the reality everywhere else in the planet. And we forget just how many places on earth need development and attention.

I was intrigued when someone said to me: “I don’t even know what to do because it feels like everything has already been done on this earth”. As much as I was thinking to write this article, I had not realised just how serious the issue is. So I began to wonder. I asked myself why there was such a strong need in men to be the first in something. And I came to the conclusion that egocentrism and the need to be famous is the primary reason for uselessness and total failure today.

We do not have to be the first to invent something new. We do not have to come up with computers that physically transports people from Asia to Africa in a second. We really don’t have to be wearing bright yellow socks in winter when everybody else is in black. All we need to do is wear the same black socks our own way. It makes the difference.

We are in 2016. Two thousand and sixteen years have already passed. If you are 22, the world had already been existing 1994 years before you were born. Why do you want to be the first to come up with something new? Did you expect the world to be shapeless and dark until your birth so you could come and change it? Why do you hide your laziness behind the fact that there is nothing left to do? Is it better to do as others have already done and bring your stone to the building of this edifice or is it better to sit in your room and do nothing because you wouldn’t be the first to do it anyways?

It was written nowhere that being successful means inventing the first flying car or the first singing pillows. If you allow yourself to be lazy and a failure, you shouldn’t blame it on the fact that it is hard to shine in this world because too many people shine already. Does a star worry about shining its light in the sky because too many stars are already shining?

The world is a very vast place and as much as advances in all aspects of life have been made in ‘developed’ countries, there are still plenty of places where you bringing the means to secure a more constant and stable power supply will put you almost on the same footing as the first man to have discovered electricity on earth. 

We might be short on ideas as to what non-existent thing there is still to be created but we will never run out of reasons to make sure what has already been made is distributed across the globe to ensure a much fairer humanity.

And to be realistic, to think that everything has already been done is like being forty-five and still believing Santa Claus is real. Everything that has been achieved was but a foundation, an example, a stepping stone in the progress of humanity. It was never intended that man should stop thinking of more appropriate solutions to the challenges of today. It should not have become the case that any subsequent idea is automatically classified as ‘exception to the norm’. Humanity should have already learnt by now that a work already done is a message that more such works must be carried.

We will not be the first person to have set up a NGO, we will never be the first genius in farming, we will never be the first president to have led his country to stability, but we all have a legacy unique to us even though we might be doing a job already done. What is important is not so much how new is what we are about to do. What matters is how original we are. Two absolutely great singers might sing the very same song at a competition, one will outwin the other not because he sang something new but because he was original in a common platform.

All might have already been done but none of it has already been extended to the faraway lands in need. There might have already been great political leaders that have shaken the world and left a name, but we can chose to shake the world more positively and not leave behind catastrophe like Hitler and every leader coming under his category. 

In a world so big, we cannot possibly run out of opportunities to show away our uniqueness. The principle is simple: personal vision and a legacy well-founded. The justification is simply: time and space are two great opportunity givers. If your light is but that of one star above dark skies in 2016 France, it might be the sun in 2016 Malesia. There might be no room left for novelty but last time I checked, originality still takes the voice of a child way loud and above that of a multitude. 

As mankind wars

One word bears the curse of all humanity:

Competition, the provenance of all misery

One platform swallows up human kind

Life is where they all have to perform

Personal identity and values hardly stand

As mankind wars with consumerism and socialism

The same rules apply to all, no matter their kind:

Education, wealth, power, fame is the norm;

Romance, tourism and luxury are its allies –

Hollywood has created an illusionary aspiration

And men and women reach misery in this pursuit

Comparison does not recognise uniqueness

Collectivism demands a division according to class

To stand out from one’s class requires alien strength

Though all must compete against the same principles

The lexical field of togetherness: Society, community, club…

Encourages a culture of dependency and the desire to be like others

It engenders crime and chaotic ideologies

And wrongly takes self-aspirations for selfishness

One word bears the curse of all humanity:

Competition, the provenance of all misery

If only humans could understand

That every being is different and every call unique,

If every country could keep to its own borders,

If every couple would learn to make their own relationship beautiful,

If social media had not made it so easy to kill privacy,

If it could be taught that success is a very relative word,

If the notions of comparatives and superlatives did not exist,

If magnificence and splendour were not glamorised over simplicity,

If there were no such things as race or colour or gender or age or faith

If conventions and exceptions were non-existent words in the dictionary,

And if the theory of acceptable and non-acceptable was a myth,

Competition would be a noun deprived of meaning

And the wars of mankind would have long ceased

ACHIEVEMENT MUST BE A LIFESTYLE

The past is a ghost that haunts humans. It embodies our greatest triumphs and fiascos. It is as stuck to us as skin is to the flesh. The past takes prevalence over our lives because it is something that is known to us. Human beings do not like the unknown. We would rather die in a deserted land where we were raised than venture to discover another land because we dread what might await us. 

Gambling is a good example of this – someone who just secured £10,000 will often refuse to take another bet to either get the answer correctly and win an additional amount or fail to answer and lose the £10,000. The fact that he knows what already is but doesn’t know what will happen the next minute makes him choose the past over the present and the future. This mentality has developed into conservatism.

For our purposes, conservatism will be defined as the choice to live the rest of our life based on past experiences. It is the refusal to embrace life as an adventurous journey. Because of it, many of us become chanters of what we achieved many years ago. 

We speak of experiences both spiritual and natural that took place decades ago but we have no actual testimony. In the spiritual, many fail to realise that God had long left them, because they continue to cling on to past experiences. In the natural, many get the highest grades in first year then fail in second year because they became content of their intelligence in first year and do not invest more time and energy in second year.

The moment we realise that all the glories and praises attached to us are about past achievements, we must know we are all but a success. A serious employer does not employ a person in 2016 whose curriculum vitae dates from 2012. He needs to see current experiences. He doesn’t rely on theories developed ages ago. In a fast-growing global economy, nobody wants to take the risk of employing a person without actual experience.  

There was a time when I became a bit too content with my academic achievements. It was enough for me that I had seen my name being praised on local newspapers. I began to achieve nothing more than what I had been achieving the past months until suddenly my teacher gave me 40% on a piece of work I had just submitted. It was a shock to realise that I had just gone from 100% to 40%. I realised there was something seriously wrong somewhere so I went to speak to him. 

He told me that I had become too happy with my current status that I was no longer using my brain properly. He insisted that I was going to kill my talent if I allowed myself to think that that was all I could achieve. According to him, my current level of acquired knowledge was such that yesterday’s achievements were no longer such a great deal anymore. 

This particular sentence stood out “If two girls age 3 and 12 are given the exact test and they both get 10/10, the 3 year-old will get more praises because her achievement is not proportionate to her knowledge. The more you know, the more you are required to achieve higher.” It became clear then that the more I knew, the more was asked of me. The more I took in, the more I had to give out.

Achievement must therefore be a lifestyle. It is not enough to be the brightest student at college. It is not enough to have made the records yesterday. And it is certainly not enough to have had a visitation from the Lord yesterday. We must strive to live success. An achievement must breed another achievement. 

One who has £10 must have the desire to make it £20. The athlete who won a silver medal yesterday must fight to obtain a gold medal. An employee of the month must work to become employee of the year. A person who spoke in tongues yesterday must remain close to the Lord to have discernment tomorrow.

We must never become too content with our past achievements. A wise man looks for ways to better his situation. There is nothing wrong in wanting to have a little more. The brain functions as long as man is alive. It is therefore up to us to continue to use it to achieve until there is nothing left to achieve. 

The brain works all the time. Inspiration is a source that cannot dry. That is all we need. We must therefore put ourselves into work and stop boring people’s ears with the same stories over and over again. Past experiences must only be the salt that is spread before the snow. They must be a facilitator of what we achieve tomorrow. A successful man is one that finds a way to perfect his best work. 

ATTACHMENTS

Who conceived the dependency culture of our era? When did it become the norm that we must accommodate the world around us as we process our imaginations? Where has a person ever been successful in the pursuit of a goal while following all the instructions of men?

It is no doubt that we form bonds in the course of our lives that might be social, economic, political, religious, emotional or psychological. We bind our own minds into thinking cautiously before taking decisions. Oftentimes, a government does or refrains from doing something because it is threatened with economic and political sanctions. A spouse remains in an abusive relationship because of the emotional and psychological dependency developed. A religious man adjusts his behaviour when among fellow believers for fear of being judged ungodly. 

In our daily life, we are ever so conscious of our surroundings. We do not desire to hurt those we love so we avoid doing what they dislike. We hate to be ‘judged’ so we alter our perceptions and deeds to fit to situations accordingly.

Most of the time, it is easier for us to escape the snares of distant acquaintances and people that do not directly have an impact over our lives. It is not such a great deal if we dismiss the observations of a person we randomly came across on the streets or a person that will never have any direct influence over us. It becomes problematic when it is someone close to us. We would not dare go against our families and friends, our teachers or our religious leaders… We would rather do as they say than go as we think. We are never ready to challenge the logics of those who influence our lives directly. And this is exactly why so many eagles lay in chicken yards not knowing they have wings to soar through the highest skies.

As much as we must be considerate of other people’s views and beliefs, it must never be so as to imprison our own. A mother might firmly resist the idea of her child going abroad to further his studies but, as Camare Laye once wrote about his own mother, it might simply be because she dreads the idea that her child will have to face the unknown alone. 

A friend might oppose our choice of a spouse but it might simply be because they wanted that person to marry them instead. A husband might not accept that his wife goes on a business trip but that might only be because he thinks her to be the most beautiful and fears that another man sets eyes on her.

 In all scenarios, giving up on what we believe to satisfy those we care about means we will never be able to attain personal success and satisfaction in our own life. As much as we feel proud when our direct circle of friends and family are happy with our deeds, we must never forget that most of the time the majority of them will not appreciate the value of our decisions and visions. And this applies to both the natural and spiritual realms.

In today’s world where everything is ever so centred around consent and approval, it is important to appreciate that we do not always need approval from human beings in order to set on our goals. To the serious minds whose hearts burn to go beyond the conventions and norms, life is not a status shared on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram. 

Life is not a social media platform where we can post our experiences and dreams and only allow people to like them otherwise we block them. It is important that we distinguish between what is real and what is virtual. In the platform of life, we have likes and dislikes buttons. People are allowed to agree or disagree.

It is not to say that we must always dismiss every feedback that does not concord with our vision. No. It is only by reflecting silently on what is said elsewhere that we come to terms with whether or not we deeply desire to see our dream come to fruition. It is only by listening to the pros and cons according to others’ points of view that we decide whether our own logic weighs in the scale.  

What is important is to understand that our father’s vision was given to him and him alone. It was his personal goal and he must live his entire life pursuing and achieving that goal. 

Our own vision, likewise, is ours alone. We might well explain its ups and downs till tomorrow and the next day but nobody will ever understand it better than ourselves; they were not called for that particular task. 

The people we hold most dear to our heart will sometimes become a burden too heavy on us. Our desire to please them will keep us on the ground and we will fail to fly high. Our constant fear of not being in accordance with their beliefs will be a curse that will prevent us from achieving our personal goal.

We must therefore be aware of the singularity of each call and understand that an eagle who does not rid itself of unnecessary feathers will fail to discover the wonders beyond blue skies. So long as we are persuaded that the vision we hold dear to our soul is in accordance with our divine destiny, we must not strive for anyone’s consent. 

Great minds that this world has known were burnt to the stake, imprisoned, cast away in mental hospitals. Few saw their work being given the value they deserved while still alive. Many that we call geniuses today; ideas that are the very foundation of our societies today were dismissed as a fool’s tale when they were first expressed. It is only in persevering that the boldness of these perceptions became appreciated. 

It might take centuries for anyone to realise just how great an idea we had. It might not be decades until a book we published attracts the right attention. But what does it matter? We would have nevertheless achieved our personal goal. Our personal goal was never to manage to align everybody behind us. Rather, it was to give life to the embryo that was deposited in our mind. Whether they agree or disagree, it does not matter that they see blue what we see red. Time always rewards the patient and one day the stars will shine on a work that endured critics and opposition. 

WHAT WE DREAD MOST

From the freshness of the early sunrise to the coolness of sunset and everything in between, we are governed by one principle only. A deeply rooted seed called ‘THOUGHT’ brings forth from within us a predefined conception of the world and a predetermined understanding of the sequence of events throughout our daily lives. Unlike the natural seed, though, the thought brings forth fruits according to the kind of water used on it. Poisonous waters from the infected rivers of circumstances will almost always generate the birth of negative vision and understanding. Purified waters from the inner ocean of the self will bring forth fruits of positivity and thus prosperity.  It stems from this reasoning, therefore, that what we hear, see, or feel might only be the result of our own thoughts as opposed to reality. In fact, our five senses are governed by our thoughts. If anything, this might be an explanation for why human beings often come to various conclusions on the same set of facts.

The thought is the machinery that makes and filters life’s daily encounters. As a result, our understanding of and our response to the world around us is nothing but the direct consequence of our mindset. Among the maxims that illustrate this best is the saying that ‘what we fear is what happens to us’. Things happen, not because they were meant to happen in the way they happened but because of our own self-inflicted anticipations.

Positive anticipations engender beautiful opportunities. Take a person, P, who has long thought of a distant acquaintance, A, as being the most amazing person on earth. If the day comes that they should meet, P would have prepared his mind to meeting a most loving and welcoming person. Because of this thinking, he himself would be full of bright smiles, caring and welcoming towards A who might or might not return the warmth. It might be the case that A finds P overly enthusiastic and so makes unfriendly remarks against him. But P’s pre-set expectations would take these as being an unusual sense of humour and would blindly continue to see in A that fantasy of a loving person he had developed in his mind. 

In a more optimistic tone, A might in fact end up being that most loving person but very often this will be because P’s thinking has brought him to prepare the atmosphere for a peaceful exchange that constrains A to only displaying her good side. In both cases, A ends up being an amazing person because P had thought so and therefore interpreted her gestures according to what he was willing to see and understand. Thus goes the saying “love is blind”. It is for this reason that another person might give a totally different account that portrays A as the most horrible person.

On the other hand, negative anticipations are the mother of every personal deterioration. A man, M, who thinks that his neighbour, N, hates him will often end up in acrimonious terms with him. It might not necessarily be the case that N does in fact hate him but his thinking so would lead him to see in his neighbour everything that is bad and wrong. An honest salutation from N in the morning will be interpreted as provocation and mockery. A courteous gesture from N would mean disdain. N might well lose his life for M, still he will continue to believe that N hated him.

On the far end scenario, N might end up in fact hating M not because he wanted to but because M’s belief was so that he made the environment bitter so as to reject his offers or exclude him from his community. The fact that N tries in vain to dismantle M’s ingrained thoughts will bring about his own weariness and the two men will eventually end up in unfriendly terms. This, again, is but the consequence of M’s thoughts which in turn forced the environment around him to breathe accordingly.

The plausible hypothesis might therefore be that there is no such a thing as ‘reality’. Reality is, to every man, but what his mind would allow his heart to believe and what his heart would allow his senses to experiences. If a man chooses to think that every time another criticises his deeds means that person is a jealous who does not wish him to prosper, he will fail to see genuine constructive feedback that house the key to his fame. If a man thinks that nobody in his community likes him, he will set himself enough boundaries to push everyone away and reject even the most sincere offers of love, thus living a life of solitude and agony. If a man thinks that he is eloquent and charming, he will speak to clouds with boldness which in turn will force the masses to listen to him.

The choice is given to all to decide from which source to draw. Every individual has in him enough power to ascend to glorious realms of self-achievement and just as much ability to descend into the lowest pits of the self-pitying that brings about self-destruction. Life will never be beautiful unless we think it to be beautiful. 

Our thoughts govern our perception which then influences our attitude. And the world around us constantly changes itself to respond to our attitude. Human beings constantly alter their attitude. In the course of the day, we smile to some and are rude to others. We respond to any given situation according to what we think the case to be. If we think we are threatened, we raise unnecessary boundaries. If we think we will win, we try our very best. All lies in the fact that every individual has his own faiths and fears. The attempt to create a single universal train of thought for every human being is perhaps the reason why our world is encompassed with torturous clashes. What we dread the most often happens because we allow the deepness of our soul to be invaded by the fears of our thoughts.

NOTHING

Bitter-sweet curse of humanity

A meaningless Nothing all too Important

Endless days to its quest – Vanity

Efforts to find it make the people dependent

Greatest of lies ever conceived –

That one could conquer a land occupied

Ghosts cast their shadow to forever haunt –

And The original Owner Always has Cause

Unto the nothingness of plain air people hold

Emotional conceptions – the myth of utopia

They dramatize or they glamourize –

Life is a bunch of anecdotes of what they had wished

Baseness profound ruins their souls

As per every desire they seek to acquire by force

Nothing can ever come out of nothing

And love is but a utopian illusion of a loveless world

DELVINA

She – wrapped in a silky pink cloth –

Adorable as the moon – a pretty little star

So peacefully sleeping – at the back of the car park

On that Monday afternoon as it rained –

Was carried by the woman who is her mother

A smile she brought on my heavy heart

So I complimented as I went to empty the bins

‘What an amazingly beautiful baby’!

But this woman looked up and wept

So I stopped to understand why

‘Beauty gives no shelter and beauty is no luck’

Pain was felt through each word she uttered

A story of hopelessness and desperation –

And I wondered why I had said a word

Wrapped in my arms was this woman

Her baby beside us – sleeping still

Putting aside my own discomfort

I chose carefully each word – to give her hope

Sleeping so serenely was this baby – it looked like

The heavens were promising a brighter tomorrow  

 ‘You must keep strong, at least for her’

I forced the words out of my broken heart

Another hug gave I to this poor soul

As I went back into my own misery of work

Tears in my heart while smiling to customers

I marvelled at the heaviness of the hearts of men

I wondered if I had done enough

So I went back with the only thing I had –

‘No, please, take it back’ she said

Firmly refusing my offer – and I

Told her tomorrow would be better

Because Delvina slept peacefully under such heavy rain

Our Congo – our Motherland of great worth

Breath-taking beauty is this dear Congo

Whose very people like an army in war

Are determined to bring victory home

Squatters had occupied our premises –

But the fathers proved valid title deed

So on this land we could begin to build –

For a declaration of independence on June, 30^th 1960

They fought heart and soul though the process was risky –

So we could develop the plan and its details carry

To this Congo we owe an account of glory

Its achievement relies on a change of mentality

The people, ready to take on responsibility

Every citizen will fulfil their role –

In denouncing injustice in our land, we will be bold

Our history, to the world, must be told –

Our Congo – our Motherland of great worth

Will see sunshine on her river’s coast

Even if our lives this freedom must cost –

An Evening Discussion

In speaking sense during the night

Came much reason for us to write –

However blue may be the sky

Along still continues the fight –

If one does not achieve the goal

He seeks to make the rest fall

When the neighbour’s flowers grow

He wishes them to have many flaws

The humblest of learned among the ignorant

Has for best qualification – arrogance

However reverent may be his countenance

Their disapproval will yet be apparent

To explain the reasons of the project

Only has attracted so much disrespect –

To ask their support is a huge mistake

And to consult them is to forget the task

Like a burning fire –though- is the vision –

It consumes any unnecessary connection

Many do not understand the reason

It does not seek universal satisfaction

Though there rise condemning tongues,

In learning there is nothing wrong - 

So long as our own in darkness plunge

Will we continue to cry out for change

MYSTERE

Je les vois s’avancer – des hommes

Aux liens plus forts qu’une famille

Pendant des années dans la paix – vivent-ils

Dans la mutualité et la coopération

J’entends leurs projets – quotidien

Jamais un seul ne mange sans penser aux autres

L’affection si réciproque qui les unit

Fait d’eux une nation manifestement forte –

Mais j’observe leur cœur – le cœur de l’homme

Rapide à oublier – comme le vent qui souffle

Les bienfaits sont facilement effacés de la mémoire

A l’ombre d’un seul mécontentement

Quelques années plus tard, je les revois  

Chacun de son cote – ils avancent les têtes opposées

On croirait à peine qu’ils étaient une nation – pourtant

Une simple incompréhension a réussi à les diviser

Dès l’enfance j’ai bien voulu comprendre

Pourquoi des années d’amitié disparaissent en une seule nuit

Pourquoi on met autant de temps à construire

Mais une seule minute suffit pour détruire

MY BROTHER

Valiant hero, soldier of the Cross

Mighty man of valour – with grace made

To conquer the enemy and its armies – sent

The very blood of Emmanuel in your veins runs

A great task is your call – certainly

Unto Adoption called – to manifest God

To raise high the emblem dripping with blood – commissioned

Holding forth the Words of Life

The king of the Babylonians is building statutes

Balak king of Moabites is giving free party

In such a time as this, oh mighty soldier

What manner of man should you be?

Elders are getting old and need your support

When packed by angels Moses will be,

Will you be found a worthy Joshua for the task?

Or will you be of those wanting to return to Egypt?

Is there no Phineas within the camp

To put an end to the plague brought among you?

Is there no David with a testimony

To defeat this uncircumcised Goliath of Laodicea?

Can you not be a Gideon or an Elijah for the Lord?

Were they not men of like passion?

From Joseph to James and Paul

From youth consecrated to the Lord – to fight

Did they not with boldness proclaim the Name of Jehovah?

The clock has struck, it’s going Home time

What will your testimony be up yonder?

Unto blood they were tested – yet they remained faithful

How much more you who lives in the time of human rights?

The entire creation is waiting on you

Nature awaits the manifestation of the sons of God

Will you now be positionally placed?

Or will you continue to ground the mills for the Philistines?

Valiant hero, will you bow to the god of this evil age?

Or will you rebuild the Temple of God?

ELLE CRIE!

Entendez-vous la voix qui crie?

Le bruit amer de femmes et d’enfants

Qui, sous le soleil brulant des contrées

Subissent pire que la cruauté?

Elle crie, cette patrie chérie

Ils meurent, ces peuples détruits

L’Afrique bénie de nos ancêtres plaide

Pour une seule minute de silence

Quand elle subit viols et meurtres sur son sol

Quand un petit bébé pleure le cadavre de sa mère

Quand un père est forcé à violer et tuer son enfant

Le monde, ne le voit-il pas ?

De Beni à Chibok, dans les villages cachés

Le nombre de ces morts bat tous records

Et pourtant il n’y a ni convention, ni sanction

Pour la dignité de ces vies aussi humaines

Qui entendra le crie perçant de mon peuple?

Image après image, son humiliation

A parcouru l’attention veine des medias

Justice sera-t-elle faite pour cette Afrique qui pleure?

Traitors

Forth came, out of the unspoken
Feelings of betrayal and of want
Wanting  all mischief explained
A vain desire well remained

Smiling sweet faces all too good
For a world of treacherous fools
Back-stabbing like a mouse
Those within the very house

Profits and interests undercover
None befriends but they flatter
Looking so like sweet peace
They suck the blood with no remorse

Their deeds but plots and treason
They do hate without reason
Their words bitter honey
They betray for no money

Sublime

As from total unconsciousness I awake
Moving from head to toe, even my brain
The sun is up outside the window
And life is round and about the earth

Every day it happens quite the same
Yet it is a new miracle each time
To be able to finish a day in peace
To be able to wake up from sleep

NONE BUT HE

To understand the equity of His judgments

The Most High Judge had to become a man

And go through every single temptation

Until even the taste of death He endured

Who is man to judge his fellow brother?

He whose life has no resemblance to the other

Does he not know that to each is given a task

And none but God knows what each goes through?

Why the smell of comparison among my people?

Do you want us all to be heads in the body of Christ?

Who is going to be the hand or the mouth?

Should this body look like a monster with no members?

He stepped down and lived it all

So when you sin He sees your soul

You live your script and not that of the other

How can you understand the role of your sister?

In the perfect love story of the Living God

There had to be a Paul and a David

There had to be a Mary mother of Jesus and a Rahab

Who are you to comment on the role of His child?

If to you a task is given to gather the sheep

Set no critical eye on he that simply sits

Every stone in the edifice has its role

And none but God plans them all

He calls some as kings, others as doormen

To the Glory of He that understands the burden of each

He has been through every sin so He judges with compassion

You have not known the weight of the other’s temptation

So you have no mandate to judge your fellow human

ACCOUNT

In the open battlefield 

Many a arrow have I received 

Some expected, others unexpected 

Coming mostly from my friends 

In the secret battleground

The combat has been more fierce

Struggling to shut away the voices

That blur away my main target

Master, all along did I know
That your eye was surely watching
And even in my deepest unbelief
The soul proclaimed You'd make a way

At times You let me go alone
Or so I really thought - 
Because I could not hear Your Voice - 
The Dove was simply waiting on a tree

Marks apparent and non-apparent

Bear record of the suffering endured

But none of it actually testifies

Of the immensity of my gain

VOTE FOR MURDER!

Hear the cry of a little child
His mother drowned when they fled
He sleeps on snow in winter cold;
Just another number on the figures -

Feel the turbulent pain of a young girl
Ten soldiers made of her their prey
She bears the wounds of war techniques;
Just one of the many silenced victims -

Witness poverty and disease strike a country
Its people know not of education
Its pregnant women die with child;
Just another of the stories in developing countries

Meanwhile, vote world leaders
Who close your borders to keep you safe
While bombing others to make you great;
Support your troops being sent abroad
And your leaders dictating elsewhere

Leave as inheritance to your children
Safe cities, education and a settled future
That you and yours have acquired through murder;
Sign your will with the blood of victims

LA HAINE

La flèche qui perse du dos

A une odeur irrésistible, de mort

Fait tomber le héros vers l’avant,

La tête baissée en signe de vaincu  

Plus on avale le poison de ton amertume,

Plus on perd toutes ses vertus

Oubliant que les critiques de ta langue malsaine

N’ont pour but que fortifier notre règne

A force de chercher à comprendre

Pourquoi tu nous en veux autant,

On perd son temps à courir après des banalités

Jusqu’à perdre de vue le but même de notre existence

Que tu parles jusqu’à perdre ta voix,

Tes conséquences tirent source 

De l'opinion changeante des humains

Pourquoi influences-tu le parcours du héros?
N'as-tu jamais entendu qu'un héros ne meurt jamais? 

Twenty Two

Before me unfolds everyday
Wonders of God's unending faithfulness
Day by day, year after year,
Twenty-two now achieved,
Excited am to discover the mysteries
Behind the lines of this twenty-third chapter
And the Crown beyond the blues!

A journey has it been! Of joy
Of peace and of happiness
For beyond the blessings of nights
Have I found honey in the Rock
And eternal Consolation to my Soul

To Father and mother, to sisters and brothers
And to all my precious friends,
Those who are gone and those who are yet alive
The expression of my gratitude, receive
You are the reasons of my smiles

Ever so grateful to Jehovah God Almighty
For morning by morning new mercies I see
I can but say thank you for my Life
For I know indeed how privileged I am
To have what I have and enjoy life's sweet streams

Onwards going, marching to Heaven
Climbing every step with hands UpLifted
My Help comes from Above
So on my way singing as I go
Will I praise the Lord even louder
For His lovingkindness and
For the Message of the Hour

THE BATTLE MUST BE WON

Tired and so weary

Giving up becomes so easy

But the Crown beckons

The Battle must be won –

Tempted and tried

Inside the smiling self

Waves of fear and doubts arise

Will I really make it Home?

Wounded and agonised

Is there a brook anywhere?

From the depths of the soul,

There is a crying out –

This race will I continue to run

Till the doorbells ring for me

And if it happens that I fall

I will rise and continue the race

Till my Lord one day I see