Ode to Africa

It's the cradle of humanity,
a vast continent
home to gazelles,
elephants, leopards,
and diverse tribes and races

It's a sea of humanity
unpolluted by phony democracy
and stale technocracy

The land of the cheetah,
the tribal warrior, the proud Boer,
savanna and jungle,
pygmies, goats, and cell-phones

It's a vast continent:
fertile with opportunity,
home to the village and the cosmopolis,
the gentle Christian,
the brilliant intellectual,
the ruthless criminal,
the honest businessman,
reptillian deserts,
teeming oceans, remote islands,
and the great, ferocious sun

Even now,
civilizations are forming:
a ferment of modernistic change,
intellectual ferment,
conflict, innovation,
enlightenment, prejudice,
charity, brutality,
poverty, strength, wealth,
health, disease,
and all other things earthly and human

It's a continent of light,
of huge potential,
a place where awesome things
are happening invisibly
(at least to the eyes
of the courteously racist Western media)

So, strong and bold young man,
go not east or west
but to Africa,
where great challenges and opportunities wait