(In memory of Arthur ‘Wadada’ Greenidge who died in tragic circumstances. Wadada in Amharic means love and he was indeed a beautiful person. Will always cherish his memory.)
Dem kill Wadada!
Yes sah,
Dem kill mih brother,
With machine gun and revolver.
1990, the 25th of November,
A night I'll always remember,
For a few pieces of silver,
A few pieces of filthy lucre,
Dem kill mih brother,
Arthur,
In error.
Just another
Martyr,
Like Martin Luther
And Mahatma,
Oh Jesus, dem kill mih brother,
Arthur,
A man who knew pain, poverty and hunger,
So much pain and agony he suffer,
Now time to reap the fruits of his labour,
Just when he was sure,
Of a contract from Amar,
To let the world know he was a star,
To send his message of love near and far,
With the philosophy of the Emperor,
As captain of the Black Starliner,
A modern-day Marcus Garvey navigator,
To repatriate the minds of his brothers
And sisters
Home to Africa,
Home to spiritual Ethiopia,
With roots and culture
As a Twelve Tribes of Israel soldier,
Up comes that Dragon, Lucifer,
In a plot with Babylon, the Harlot Mother,
And send bad-boys to slay mih brother.
But dem couldn’t reach far,
Struck down by the wrath of Jah,
Don’t you see it’s a spiritual war?
But the Lion of Judah,
Surely, the Lion shall conquer,
So said Jah,
Cause He is the Ruler
And the Creator.
Dem kill Wadada!
Yes sah,
Dem kill mih brother,
King Arthur.
Murder!
Dem kill the rasta,
Shot him in the vocoder;
No more
Shall the humble lion roar.
Have mercy on them, oh Jehovah
For they know not what they have done.
Arthur Napthali Wadada,
May your soul rest in peace in Mt. Zion
Where you belong.
Selah.
Copyright ©1991 by G. Newton V. Chance.
- G. NEWTON V. CHANCE
- George Newton Vivian Chance (Trinidad and Tobago) -- member of the Poet Society of Trinidad and Tobago, http://poetssocietytt.blogspot.com/ and the World Poets Society, http://world-poets.blogspot.com/ -- born in Tobago on 3rd March 1957. While residing at Rio Claro was inspired to write over a hundred poems at the turn of the Millennium. Hobbies include playing wind instruments, building computers, observing nature, reading and writing poetry. Believes that the power of a song is in its ability to evoke emotions by the marriage of lyric and music but that music without lyric can be just as powerful, that lyric without music can also be just as powerful, that there is music in the lyric and that lyric can be simple yet profound. Also, in this the age of computers, would like to model his lines after simple and efficient code and, analogous to Object Oriented Programming, achieve most of his imagery from nouns and verbs, avoiding the bloat and excess of unnecessary adjectives. This is what he aspires to attain in his poetry.
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