By Ebrima Papa Colley (Gambiano)
Its sovereignty and flora at swords point, its fauna stir, in bees to send a message
To a leader unthinking, yet basking in borrowed lease and drachma in a passage
Promised earlier of three rains—and not gnawing pains, nor stains on our suzerainty
For thou can’t, O jailor, send insects to Mile II for protesting a president with spontaneity.
Bees unarrested, O Gambia, shall thrive where citizens, poor and cheated tried but failed
Not by wont bereft of valor, but corollaries of stealth to have a popular rising this derailed.
Where Three Years Jotna silently licks wounds, O heathenish jailor, bruised Gambia’s bees
Shall rise, swift as thunder’s deafening alarums, or yet, the Seleucid’s rebellious Maccabees.
Rise Kunta Kinteh, rise O forebearer of Gambian bravery! See thy land usurped, thy seeds
Uprooted at germination to wither in hot furnaces of special interest—of aliens or weeds
That grow in a tillage promising beauty, mirth, and delight to the tillers’ expectant glory
Only to be rendered barren in harvest, as if to remind a cultivator of a murder scene too gory.
Rise Musa Molloh, rise O druid! Rise and behold thy progeny this cruelly overrun and rused
In their own territory by hawks and jackals fronting a president with veins too profused
With blood too unpatriotic as to make our mothers cry, our sisters die, our offices taken
In a Gambia where to think today is to fill oneself with grief while others sadly unawaken.
Rise Sir Farimang Singateh, rise O great forerunner! Rise and witness Gunjur being polluted!
Rise to see a Gambia superfluous of corruption, where commonsense, today is convoluted
Rise Sheriff Mustapha Dibba, rise O providence! For the bridge has been built and named!
And Bamba Tenda and Yeli-Tenda shall proceed not to cry this foul alone, our folks tamed!
Rise Reverend J.C Faye, rise O inspiration! For adamant Adama hath sold Gambia to the devil!
Rise I.M Garba Jahumpa, rise O wisdom! For thy soil is sacrilegiously led by one sworn to evil!
Rise Sir Dawda! Gambia is dying where bees intervened! Next send a speaking sparrow!
For God shall not so hate Gambia that he sent His only dumb president Adama Barrow!