“Whatever you do ...” RAP

Flow für Suleimana Wumbei, Sohn Wumbei Mbangbas, dedicated to the people of Ghana and Dagbon. Ghana, Northern Region, GGADP-Extension-Station Nyankpala, 1982-1984

 

 

Kleine Zeitreise ...

 

 

 

N’ngmojah
out of africa /

s drums comes /
talking truth / my
blues's like the red dust /
long gone a long way, away,
my gone astray / lost on my own cost /
from my shoes,
but in the cotton of the hand-made hat i wore /
moves this ancient sore i bore/  
witnessed by it’s never fading laterite trace /
smooth story-telling about a hidden place /
where a young german proved
that he had been moved /
by his thoughts of ancestors/
forced to kill / by a savage will of a nation gone bad /
so this innocent lad went on behalf of this fathers –
showed to far-away-people with red blood in their veins /
that at times god rhymes good times and some times
so that the one who refuses to kill sometimes gains /
and that “for sake of peace” - hate flees - not in vain his fathers
survived /
two cruel wars, arrived /
at Nyankpala, to serve two nations - and "patience is sweet"
became his name, which the tom-toms drummed /
while he hummed / his humble love to flower / shower, fresh rain,
brain-drain and true gain, on both sides left,
even when there was nothing more left,
that could talk about, walk any or draw a line /
to define lines or sides at all - except the line of
a bullock-plough, which turned laterite soil to bear fruit - alles wird gut –
his tounge was young till he left this place, left a trace
of love with friends who cared - spared time, took "take time" within
with him, “for the long” along with him there goes Ghana,
Dagomba he is, hidden - and place - "fili-fili", maybe "kotta-kotta" –
'cause he caused them - and they caused him,
not to be the same anymore,
but more to the one who came /
and fate - is what we made each other,
my brother/ lives within my laterite veins/
and if he's still alive, his heart-beats'll bear a young german/
through Harmattan nights, and tribal fights, his struggle for food and live,
and within his dignity's smiling rays/
that’s what an old german father prays
to praise the ghanian roots he kept
through times and loss - and trees of such roots
root the world ‘n don’t rule any man, ingrain laterite veins for all times
”whatever you do – people will talk about you”
rhythm and poetry rhymes
makes Rhine and White Volta flow pretty close/
here goes – glimpse of what’s dear
a grateful old german volunteer

Ludwig Janssen © 1.11.2008

Anmerkungen:

“Whatever you do ...” - auf den Mama-Lories Ghanas steht "Whatever!" für das Sprichwort "Whatever you do - people will talk about you" ...

“Bi gorra o piem o ba“ – „Ein Kind, das reiste, ist älter als sein Vater” – Nyankpala-Na, Erwiderung zu meiner Begrüßung