On our 50th independence day the army dressed in its finest
And marched around the square
Ample-bottomed women stuffed into awkward fatigued trousers
Men saluted a different flag from when they were boys
Prancing around the same square…larger back then none of these house-cum-shop wooden kiosks encroaching on the sacred national place
Lyrics had been tweaked, faces that looked like their own smiled benevolently down from the platform
But the brass band played the same tunes and the steps were the same
One…two…solemn…march
Eyes…right…fingers…to temple
Round and round the national square
On our 50th independence day we were very proud to be free
Declared the new father of the nation
Who was only new because his old father had finally been poisoned and died quietly in his sleep
He thanked the founding fathers who made the land what it is today
(Mothers are a new creation you see, no place for them in speeches yet)
And promised his children at least another 50 years of independence under his guidance
Agooooo….ameeeeeeee
Aooooo…eeeeeeiiiii
People cheered from one side of their mouths and wept from the other
Although the elders have said this cannot be done
We drank bile-flavoured hope and ate gari mixed with sand
While our president-king retired to his palace to eat chicken thighs with his friends
(There was much speculation about what they drank)
The army gave a final salute to independence
To be stowed away until next year
Trumpets sounded and fireworks went off
But after 50 years of civil war the people’s nerves could not handle
The blasts and crackles and flashes of light
We fled from the square independent but panicked
Heavy feet found an old woman who had fallen in familiar dust from 50 year-old riots
But now she was too old to save herself to move or even to shout
A beauty in her youth, crowned Miss Independence in that historic year
She lay in dirt and bore the weight of our beautiful free country
Running for its life–what remains of it–knowing that its children
Cannot eat this their independence
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