Charade of Accountability

Drums of accountability sounded loudly

Yet the message vanishes in translation

The desperate cling to the noise

Thinking salvation lies in the beat

The konka of admonishing heckled the selected few

Experience, the priceless coin of the realm.

 

The tag of culture’s antagonist boldly painted

Religion, sly card played at just the right moment

Gender balance, the delicate dance of equality

We envisioned ourselves a fortress of truth

Law and order, the twin pillars for which we thirsted

 

Democratic wind has blown,

But the seeds are twisted

Autocracy flowering

Where liberty was nursed communities in disarray lawless echoes haunting

Years of justice’s dream dismissed without trials

Bad roots sprouting afresh poisoning higher branches

 

Have our throats forgotten, the vows they swallowed?

Words were burned into the hearts of those looking up with desperate eyes,

Pardoning the guilty,

yet hunt witches for sports, process be damned.

 

Have we forgotten so soon?

What we promised the natives

How do we exonerate some culprits in ongoing valid cases

And launch a witch-hunting attack on another without due process

 

Is it to merely rub us our gaze the treasure troves

Siphoning away our truth?

from the the container of precious metals?

Or is it shameful to admit

We bleed the poor dry, day by day.

Why fabricate future if our past lies embedded in unjust stitchings?

For less than sixty days we tore the clothe of decrees and mended with disillusion .

 

If we were hailed as builders, why then seem like wrecking balls?

Turning hope to rubble.

Can we buy into this joke of accountability?

Or is it the same con,

If power be the prize, lies, the weapons?

Cater to the adrenaline addicts who need their fix.

 

BY: Khadijah Ama Williams