Candice Gbane

“….So much crueller than any British colony, they say, so much more brutal towards the local Africans, so much more manipulative after begrudgingly granting independence. But the history of British colonialism in Africa, from Sierra Leone to Zimbabwe, Kenya to Botswana and else-where, is not fundamentally different from what Belgium did in the Congo. You can argue about degree, but both systems were predicated on the same assumption: that white outsiders knew best and Africans were to be treated not as partners, but as underlings. What the British did in Kenya to suppress the pro-independence mau-mau uprising in the 1950s, using murder, torture and mass imprisonment, was no more excusable than the mass arrests and political assassinations committed by Belgium when it was trying to cling on to the Congo. And the outside world's tolerance of a dictator in the Congo like Mobutu, whose corruption and venality were overlooked for strategic expedience, was no different from what happened in Zimbabwe, where the dictator Robert Mugabe was allowed to run his country and its people into the ground because Western powers gullibly accepted the way he presented himself as the only leader able to guarantee stability and an end to civil strife. Those sniffy British colonial types might not like to admit it, but the Congo represents the quintessence of the entire continent’s colonial experience. It might be extreme and it might be shocking, but what happened in the Congo is nothing but colonialism in its purest, basest form.”
― Tim Butcher, Blood River: A Journey to Africa’s Broken Heart

“سَقَتني (مستوحاةٌ من فيلم أحدب نوتردام)
.................
خرِسَ الطفلُ
وأعطى وأَكْدَى ..
بُحَّ صوتُ المَهدِ ،
ليتَ المَهْدَا !

وأَصَمَّتهُ بأجراسِها الأمُّ ،
أأجراسُ الكَنيسةِ تُفدَى ؟!

قارعُ الوقتِ الذي يَتَعالَى
راحَ في دَوّامةٍ يَتَرَدَّى

أيُّها الشائهُ
إني أنا أنتَ ،
فقُبحي في الوُجوهِ تَبَدَّى

نصفُ مَخلوقٍ
ولي نصفُ دِينٍ ..
نصفُ فانٍ لا يُريدُ الخُلدا

أخدُمُ الإيمانَ حيثُ أرَبِّي
حاسَّةَ الكُفرِ ،
ولا شيءَ أجدَى !

سَيفُ (باريسَ) الذي امتَشَقَتهُ
والذي لا يَستَطيبُ الغِمدا

هِيَ
مَوتي
وهْيَ عطرُ حياتي
سيفُ (باريسَ) اسمُهُ (إزميرالْدا) !

أمطَرَتْ وجهي
بوابلِ آهاتٍ عِذابٍ ،
ثُمَّ خَلَّتهُ صَلدا

جَفَّ حَلقِي
فاستدارَت ،
سَقَتني
أشرَقَ اللهُ ،
وغابَتْ ،
فرُدَّا !

أنا أعدَى الناسِ للناسِ طُرًّا
وهْيَ يا وَيليَ أهدَى وأندَى

ما سَقَتني غيرَ بعضِ عَذابٍ
كلما مَرَّت بِرُوحيَ
جَدَّا .
.........
محمد سالم عبادة
15 يناير 2010”
― محمد سالم عبادة, قداسٌ أسود

“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.”
― Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid

“It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche