Carving Africa: Berlin Conference 1884-85

My name is Ernest M. Keeling with political poetry, political insights. This poem on the 19th century ‘scramble’ for Africa by colonial Europe is dedicated to youthful President Ibrahim Traoré of Burkina Faso, a poetic name bestowed by Thomas Sankara, meaning ‘land of the upright people’. Ibrahim, symbol of sovereignty and pride for Africa, of resistance to US / European hegemony, is the African lion who roars at the UN and shocks Western powers for refusing to be their pawn, for the simple demand of respect and equality for Africa, who avows his country’s dignity is non-negotiable. Compare to tired, old, slit-eyed Trump, a megalomaniac who rules by dictate like a medieval monarch, who is complicit in genocide in Gaza, on a war-footing with Venezuela, who thinks the world should bow to his will, whose dignity and that of his country diminishes every time he opens his mouth. Ibrahim walks the path of Patrice Lumumba and Sankara, lives a simple life, puts the people first, a leader of the new political / economic Sahel alliance with Mali and Niger, the AES, which sees ECOWAS as a tool of neo-colonialism and is determined to shake off the shackles of France and the CFA. It wants Africa’s wealth for Africans, not foreign powers or for personal enrichment - lithium of Mali, uranium of Niger, Burkina Faso’s gold, etc., and seeks full independence from foreign interference! Burkina is rejecting reliance on Monsanto GMOs, restoring indigenous seed banks ancestors have handed down for centuries. The context for this poem is the Berlin Conference 1884-85, when the barbarous tribes of Europe came around the table like ‘gentlemen’ to divide Africa between them, which they did like slicing a birthday cake with no respect for national boundaries. Otto von Bismarck promoted the Conference but the ‘Caprivi Strip’ was negotiated by successor Leo von Caprivi to access the River Zambezi, meaning trade routes to the Indian Ocean. The land was exchanged by the British who must have known, though Leo evidently did not, that 65 kilometres down river lay ‘Mosi-oa-Tunya’ (Victoria Falls), making the river unnavigable. Oops!