The Night The Soldiers Came

The night the soldiers came
In the harmattan of '68
Brandishing machetes, guns and slaughter knifes
Crude accessories for the task at hand
Grown men leaking in their pants
Afraid to stand up to fight
For the birth of a stillborn nation
This doomed land of the setting sun
Women screaming and wailing to a God now unknown
Begging forgiveness for whatever sins beget this horror
Heads and limbs and eyes
Severed and plucked from neighbours and friends and kinsmen
Our sisters already dead from the shock
Of having babies snatched from their wombs
That night the soldiers came
In the harmattan of '68
Asking for the blood of the Biafrans
I, gangly teen that I was
Chose to speak a different tongue
And bowed to an alien God, Allah
And so they let me live
But killed the living spirit within

The night the mob came
In the night of '98
We heard them at the gates
Brandishing machetes, guns and slaughter knifes
Crude accessories for the task at hand
Our young men stood tall and proud
Draped in the colours of the rising sun
They sang accompanied by the voices of their ancestors
"Nzobu, 'zobu, Enyimba, 'enyi"
I stood there and remembered the harmattan of '68
Visions of heads and limbs and eyes
Severed and plucked from neighbours and friends and kinsmen
Our sisters already dead from the shock
Of having babies snatched from their wombs
And so when they approached
And asked for the blood of the Biafrans
I spoke the proud tongue of my fathers
And lifted my head up to Jehovah
We fought till the last man stood no more
And reclaimed the lost dignity
Of our defiled maidens and emasculated sons
And when I drew my last on the enemies sword
And whispered 'Ozoemena! ozoemena!'
I knew I had been reborn to live forever
In this new land of the rising sun.