(Here’s a new poem you can both listen to and read. If you are unfamiliar with the Yoruba pantheon you should cast a casual eye over Wikipedia’s offering here)
To listen, click on the graphic below)
yes my name is Sopona the Great
but I am NOT the god of smallpox
who first put that mad idea in motion?
why am I not god of war, or wombs.
am I not worth the spoils of war? the
sumptuous joys of fertility rites?
if iron’s taken, what about steel?
can I not be Sopona, Steel God?
why am I not god of thunder? Shango’s
all the rage… but you should hear my voice!
me, with all my talents? I make night
- you call that an eclipse. I bake sand
- you call that a drought. I Sopona,
inspirer of the Ipad… and what d’you do?
you make me a nursemaid! Even sweet
palmwine’s godless… have you thought of that?
I could have had a grove of wine offerings…
but you send me infectious diseases?
a cosmos of princely things to god
and you send me your sore and your sick?
I think not! a pox on you! and a
pox on every babalawo who
chants my name over a scabrous brow!
‘d rather be a god without portfolio, than this
(and when I say ‘a pox on you’, I
mean it figuratively of course -
there’s no need to come on bended knees
to pray away a plague of smallpox.)
my name is Sopona the Great, yes,
but i am NOT the god of smallpox!
Chuma Nwokolo
Interesting!
Sopona sounds nice, even though he’s livid with ‘pepper body’. Beautiful work.
Thanks Iquo. I’m sure he’s much mollified by your kind words
Great piece of poetry. Much of the old negro
spiritual.
Easy there, Nickson, don’t upset Sopona… before the ‘old’ negro spiritual, he was
Hmmmm…. *pondering mood activated* I think I’d like to respond to the last two lines.
Pray, do tell ‘Sapona,’ who are you then, if you are “NOT the god of smallpox”! A fake god, or a great god of Deceit?
YOU are the one who’s fetishistic mask concealed the reproduction of infectious diseases; the stealer of infertility, deceivingly and diabolically administered by your henchmen – the rogue priests.
Do cast your eyes sideways, far away from me – small god of all poxes!
Well Chuma, I say thank you for this expository poem and Thank God Sapona was forced to resign in 1907 (*smiling* yes, I looked him up in Wikipedia having never heard of him before). But sadly I think he’s still very much active today, and has adorn the foreign look of an adept.