ANALYSIS OF THE POEM "DEVELOPMENT" ( Kundi Faraja) By Msomi mzuri

DEVELOPMENT

By Kundi Faraja

A man of the people

Enters his office

to sit on the throne

of Party and State,

His stick of power

Across the table.

He looks into the files

To see the demands

Of the millions of people

Who for years since Uhuru

Have just managed to survive

They ring out one message

Man of the people

You have always been telling us

What we need…

Health centres,

More schools,

Clean water,

Better transport facilities,

Better living conditions.

Do you plead incapable

To bring about development?

I declare running

Better than walking

For a young and poor country;

I plead fighting underdevelopment

Tougher than fighting

A wounded buffalo

With a pocket knife;

I plead underdevelopment

Stronger than the blows of the sea

When the hurricane is at its height.

I plead fighting underdevelopment

Tougher than combating colonialism;

I see that it’s more difficult

To maintain peace

Than to stop a coup d’état.

I plead the cry

Of the nation

More painful than the yell

Of a woman

As her husband dies in sickness;

It’s more painful than the screams

Of a man

Dying in agony

In the coils of the greatest python

Found in the African forest.

How is development

To be brought brother

When the people to whom

We have entrusted power

Are corrupt?

I plead the stomachs

Of the privileged few

Greater than the Rift-Valley;

They cannot be satisfied

With a normal share.

I plead the thirst

 Of the minority

Greater than that of the Sahara;

No rain can quench it.

I reckon the minority

More sensitive to egoism

Than to National Development ;

Nothing that is not theirs

Is of any interest.

Their response to egoism,

Is faster than camera film to light

But as slow as tropism

To nation-building.

The majority plead

Exploited,

Cheated,

Disregarded,

But, brother,

How is development to come?

                   ANALYSIS OF THE POEM "DEVELOPMEN T click here