Monde instable

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2020
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Description (in English): 

“Monde instable” is French for “unstable world.”

This is an African e-poem expressed in French and inspired by the current Covid-19 pandemic and the politicians’ responses.

A lot of politicians are turning themselves into scientists.

They proffer political sentiment as an egress to this nightmare that’s sweeping millions of souls to the next world, instead of relying on the established scientific facts to fight the disease.

Moreover, these world leaders are not humble enough to allow scientists and academics to give us lasting solutions through the help of the Heavens and the intelligentsia.

Another pandemic is climatophosis (i.e climate change, a word I coined this year in my digital poetry).

This is worse than the Covid-19 pandemic, though many don’t believe this. It is real! Climatophosis has brought humans and wild animals to share the same niches.

Notably, in the northeastern Nigeria (Adamawa and Borno), since the early 2000s, we’ve had elephants invading our backyard orchards and gardens which led to the loss of valuable forest and cash crops.

Leaders don’t still believe these changes in the ecosystem.

When I read a scientific article on Covid-19 earlier this year, I discovered parallels between my tribal people’s mythology and scientific explanations of the spread of the pandemic. It is believed among my tribe, the Margi, that there is a a black bird with curved beak and long legs called a shimdu. Shimdu possess a deadly cough
called kekika, probably a sickness like the coronavirus pandemic. If the bird is killed and roasted, it spreads kekika to the environment via air.

English translation:

Unstable world

     This world is full of trouble!
      It’s made indeed for the humble.
I see it, I humble myself but mumble.
Thinking that it’s just a grumble.
Covid-19 & climatophosis kill
More souls in the night than ever.
Their terrors lead the world into errors.
Cos heads want powers in their corridors.
    Only stable minds conquer terrors
        Cos they are mind conquerors.

(Source: Author's note, in source code of the poem)

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Yohanna Joseph ...