From Book-banners to Book-burners for Jack Mapanje
II
Tell me:
What is the colour of burning books
Is it the chalky anthem of the egret’s December glide
Is it the indelible indigo of agbe’s plumes
Is it the eloquent fire on ayekooto’s tail
Is it the rainbow’s arc on the sky’s bewildered face?
Who struck the match
Who fanned the flame
Into ill-literate adolescence?
Tell me:
What colour, the flame of a burning book?
III
There is a stubborn echo
In the legend of the letter
Whose butterfly turns eagle
In the palms of crushing kings
Whose earthworm is cobra
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Beneath the tramping heel
Beyond edicts, beyond statutes,
Beyond the fiery imprimatur of uniformed nescience
The letter lives
Beyond the Emperor’s metallic behest
On the cobblestone
Of slippery nights,
On both sides
Of the Bridge of Fearless Wisdom
Notes
Published here with a slight amendment of the original version
Reference to Ifa divination among the Yoruba: the diviner seeks the grains of truth by tracing hidden visions on a tray of sands
Agbe is a bird with deep-blue plumage
Ayekooto: the world-abhors-the-truth (a Yoruba name for the parrot).
(Concluded)