Children of Mothers, Children of the World
Children of Mother Africa, Mother of the World
We are all children of our mothers,
Our mothers are our blessed mothers.
Our mothers are the best gifts for us
Be they rich, poor, educated and non-educated,
Be they physically impaired or whole
Our mothers have the same love for us
“Sweet mother I no go forget you… for the suffer wey you suffer for me,” sings Prince Nico Mbarga.
« L’amour d’une mère ne s’éteind jamais » confirms Patience Dabany in her song.
Children of Mother Africa, Mother of the World
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia,
Pratibha Patil of India,
Julia Gillard of Australia,
Angela Merkeil of Germany,
Dilma Rousseff of Brazil,
Atifete Jahjaga of Kosovo,
Queens Elizabeth II, Margethe II and Beatrix
We are children of mothers and mothers of children.
Children of Mother Africa,
Be we leaders
Paul Biya, Obiang Nguema, Goodluck Johnathan,
Jacob Zuma, Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy, David Cameron
Be we the wealthiest men
Carlos Helu, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet,
Be we poor and homeless children
In Tchad, Kenya, Mali, Lesotho, Ivory Coast, Senegal,
North and South America, Europe and Asia,
Our mothers went through the same agony,
To bring us into the world.
Children of Mother Africa, Mother of the World
Protecting human lives
Protecting the planet for future generations,
Are our main tasks.
All mothers want their children
To be successful, to be the best,
“Dear Mama”,
“…I finally understand… for a woman it ain’t easy tryin to raise a man…
you always was committed,” Tupac sings.
Children of Mother Africa,
No mother is more motherly than the other,
So no child is more of a child than the other.
Our mothers are special to us
No one can take their places in our hearts.
“Ain’t no woman alive that could take my mama’s place,” Tupac declares.
Our mothers sacrifice for us.
“When I dey hungry, my mother go run up and down. She go find me something wey I go chop”
“When I dey sick, my mother go cry, cry, cry, she go say instead when I go die make she die” so again, sings Prince Nico Mbarga.
Children of Mother Africa,
Mothers don’t give birth to dictators, war lords, embezzlers,
Mothers don’t give birth to power mongers, thieves, murderers,
Mothers, in their tummies, don’t’ carry greedy people and arm robbers,
No mother wants her child to be a slave to another mother’s child.
No mother wants her child to be colonized by another mother’s child.
No mother wants her child to be a murderer of other mothers’ children.
Our mothers sacrifice their life time
To educate and train us to be the best
For we are all born out of love and with love.
Yes! We are all brought into the world with love.
“Je t’ai élevé avec amour,” Patience Dabany declares in her song again.
Children of Mother Africa,
Mothers of children of Africa feel ashamed
When their children (presidents),
Unable to listen to brothers and sisters of the same nation
Hurriedly respond to the call of another mother’s child (president) of a Western nation.
Children of Mothers,
Nelson Mandela, Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankara,
Um Nyobe, Ernest Ouandie, Steve Biko
George Washington, Martin Luther King Jr. Rosa Parks
Mahatma Ghandi, Mother Theresa, Aung San Su Ki,
We too have to conquer greed, fear and ignorance,
Be committed more than ever before,
To make our mothers and children happy.
Children of Mother Africa,
We have to change ourselves
We have to change our communities,
We have to change our countries,
We have to change Africa.
We must let peace and dialogue reign.
A dialogue whose absence in Somalia, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Libya, Nigeria,
Due to greedy politics, religious beliefs and ethnicity,
Is sending beyond both mothers and children.
Children of Mother Africa,
Presidents, why do you use your regimes
To transform children of other mothers to killing machines;
Who, assist other killers like AIDS, malaria, cancer, corruption,
Poverty, underdevelopment, ignorance and fear
To kill vulnerable children of other mothers.
We have to know that the love we have for our mothers and families
Is the same with those who elect us.
Running and listening to the west for advice to govern those who elect us,
Is as ridiculous as running after excrement for food,
When we have food right in our house.
We are elected so that together with our citizens,
We can manage the resources of our nations,
Develop Africa and help some poor continents
And some less privileged parts of the earth.
Children of Mother Africa,
Why do we kill ourselves, present and future mothers?
Why do we promote rebellion, anarchy?
Can a bullet or a missile give life, promote health,
Build classroom, tar roads, and give shelter?
Why are we one of the richest continent
And at the same time tagged as poor and heavily indebted?
Children of Mother Africa,
Our mothers from the urban and rural areas
Did not request any aid from the World Bank or the IMF,
To till the hard soil of western grasslands,
To conquer the dense equatorial timberlands,
To challenge the heat and cold of some desert regions
To raise us to be who we are today.
Children of Mother Africa,
We must realize that, contrary to what others make us believe,
We are a rich people in a rich continent.
We shouldn’t give room for others to exploit and transform us
To people who die of hunger in a midst of abundant food,
People who die of thirst in a pool of potable water,
People who die of sickness in the midst of drugs.
Children of Mother Africa,
Have we ever asked ourselves why the western nations
With all the atomic bombs, and
The most dangerous and recent missiles,
Never use them on their own lands?
Have we found out why elections problems in some western nations,
Don’t take them to violence?
Children of Mother Africa,
Let’s look at Effel Tour of France,
The tall and beautiful buildings of Chicago, New Jersey, New York,
Beautiful streets and amusement parks of Britain, Germany, and ask ourselves if
We think their presidents, Queens and citizens will ever allow a problem to escalate into the destruction of these beautiful and expensive edifices?
Children of Mother Africa,
It is astounding and degrading to find children
Of the ruling and non-ruling parties in African nations,
Treat one another with scorn, intimidation and as people of senseless opinions.
Children of Mother Africa,
Unity is strength,
It’s time to take the continent’s destiny into our hands.
A unity of weak people is stronger than a mishmash of strong people.
A unity of less educated people is more promising than a jumble of highly educated people.
We shouldn’t fall in the traps of our ignorant predecessors.
We, and not westerners, vote for our Presidents.
Their remuneration emanates from our hard work
and not from that of the citizens of the west.
So, they are accountable to us just as their counterparts of the west are accountable to their citizens
Children of Mother Africa,
Those of us in the armed force,
We are children of mothers,
The love from our mothers warrants us,
Not to allow ourselves to be transformed into killing machines of other mothers’ children.
Our mothers want to feel loved when we use our strength and knowledge
To kill killers of other mothers’ children like famine, illiteracy, bad roads, energy insufficiency, unfair exploiting acts towards our natural resources.
Children of Mother Africa,
Our bosses, our presidents, kings, queens, traditional rulers, the soldiers,
We are all children of our mothers
We shouldn’t allow ourselves to be used as atrocious tools
In the hands of some fanatic officials
We shouldn’t bestow curses upon ourselves
By doing what we know is wrong.
Our mothers brought us into the world; groomed us with reason for us to use it rightly.
Awafong Julius T
© Awafong Julius T.
Outreach Coordinator
VoteSizing Institute – votesizing.org/ivotesize.com
October 2011,
Yaounde – Cameroon
