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    Hope For The "Basket Case" Continent!
    Hope For The "Basket Case" Continent!
    Hope For The "Basket Case" Continent!
    Ebook114 pages1 hour

    Hope For The "Basket Case" Continent!

    By Jonathan Mubanga Mumbi

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    About this ebook

    Poetry is at the heart of Africa's long existence. It flows through chants, rhapsodies, songs, and praises. The continent has seen more than its fair share of joy, pain, rage, and faith; and every generation has asked questions in the light of their share of despondency. How long will this go on? Is there hope of Africa ever turning around?

    These poems took shape in the boiling pot of my service as a volunteer missionary and a church minister. From Kibera, in Nairobi, to Tambo Square, in Cape Town the pain is the same. I have danced in churches in the slums because their hope, faith, and love is as real as anybody else's. But I have also stood in the streets of Mandeville, Jamaica, and seen that this pain follows Africa into the diaspora and teaches us to hold our joy and pain in a dynamic tension that leads to hope. In African poetic expressions I join those who channel anger, disappointment, and concern for injustices and oppression into faith in God's companionship on our common journey towards hope.

    Parts of this continent have capitulated to rage-inspired by hopelessness. But without hope, faith, and love, the bloodshed of rage has simply provoked greater rage and more bloodshed. Africa has been marketed as a "basket case" by fatigued development enthusiasts but, I write to say there is hope for Africa. Some poems in this little book describe things as they are and others are intended to be inspirational.

    The hope of Africa is in her spirituality and the health of the African Church is a huge concern to this writer. I also write in the hope that Africans reading this will see hope and have fun with the wording and phrasing of these verses. This writer draws inspiration from European history and its transformation because there were times when Europe was in no better shape than Africa is today. Transformation came and Europe rose from its ashes.

    Japan, China, Australia, Singapore all had very dark days, but they moved forward not backward; towards joy, not hopelessness and anger. This is the heart of these poems: transformation is happening in Africa at a painful pace today. With more and better quality education, this pace will increase to take Africa to a more joyful place. I hope for the coming of a joy that will comfort concerned global citizens who are happy to see the missing face of Africa--truly happy faces of Africans thriving in their own way!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJonathan Mubanga Mumbi
    Release dateMar 7, 2014
    ISBN9781311326164
    Hope For The "Basket Case" Continent!
    Author

    Jonathan Mubanga Mumbi

    I am Jonathan M. Mumbi an ordained Bishop of the Church of God (World Missions Zambia). This is a denomination under the World Missions Department of the Church of God, Cleveland Tennessee, USA.I have been in ministry since 1988 and mostly a volunteer in Youth With A Mission (YWAM) +30 years. My wife, Jean Mumbi, and I have served at various levels in YWAM and in the Church of God. My passion is to empower young people through nonformal Christian tertiary education. My educational journey has been mostly through YWAM's University of the Nations but I am grateful to have earned a Master of Divinity and a Master of Theological Studies through Nations University. I am a Pastoral Counselor and a lecturer. We are a family of which the youngest is going twenty-three and her siblings are adult brothers.Special personal note: None of the organizations served or mentioned will endorse every opinion I hold, neither do I want to leave anyone under the impression that I writes for, or, under any other authority other my own passion to write what I feel inspired to write.

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      Book preview

      Hope For The "Basket Case" Continent! - Jonathan Mubanga Mumbi

      Hope For The Basket-Case Continent!

      By Jonathan M. Mumbi Ph.D

      Copyright 2014 Jonathan M. Mumbi

      Published by Jonathan M. Mumbi at Smashwords

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Acknowledgements

      Prologue

      Chapter One: A Better Africa!

      Chapter Two: Government

      Chapter Three: African Capital

      Chapter four: The Dearth of African Vision

      Chapter five: Son, Your Mother!

      Chapter six: The African Playing Field

      Chapter Seven: Its a State-jack My Son!

      Chapter Eight: So We Must Leap!

      Chapter Nine: When the Righteous Prosper!

      Chapter Ten: Battling for the life of Ubuntu

      Chapter Eleven: This Also Shall Be History!

      Chapter Twelve: Ububi Triumphs Over Ubuntu?

      Chapter Thirteen: Davidic Perceptions and Saulish Deceptions!

      Chapter Fourteen: A Little Kiss To Technology!

      Chapter fifteen. The Basket Case Continent

      The End

      About the Author

      Other Books By the Same Author

      Connecting with Jonathan M. Mumbi

      Acknowledgements

      I acknowledge, the late Isaac Poets Phiri, my Christian Writing course teacher, and a poet when it was strange to be a poet. Tons of thanks to Gill Knaggs, who gave me my copy of John Milton’s poetry. Abigail, my daughter, who asked me to write her a poem at age 5 (obviously, this is not an answer to that request as I have aimed this work at twelfth grade-level readers)! It goes without saying that I am eternally grateful for the support of my wife Jean, and our children; Abel and Jennie (our son and daughter-in-law) Jonathan Jnr and Abigail; friends, Rick and Pam, Kevin and Linda, Theo and Esme, Stefaan and Trudie, Corrie and Jane, Ronald and Rowena, Dr. H. Kirby, Dr. Thomson, and many others who pray for us. Last but not least, you the brave reader of this book!

      Prologue

      Every second language writer of poetry in English will face the challenge of choosing between British or American literary conventions. An added burden to the question of writing styles is the choice of words. Since this writer is still a graduate student in American institutions, that struggle with Anglicisms in place of Americanism, is sure to be amplified in this text. Obviously the original beauty of the verses formatting has been sacrificed to fit ebook specifications. Feel free to correct those that disturb your reading pleasure. Above all, have fun playing with words and thoughts!

      Two more thing are worth noting. First, I am not exactly a Satirist commenting on contemporary issues poetically: however, while reformatting this book it became clear to me that social commentary that was true of on country in Africa became true of yet another country closer to home. A road accident that triggered my poem on road safety resulted in the banning of the company responsible, and recently, a similar accident happened resulting in the banning of yet another bus company from operating on our national roads. The case in point is old but just as relevant to the contemporary issues. Secondly, calling another person's baby, ugly, is downright offensive. For this reason, though I could focus on any of the nations I have travelled to for my examples, I have intentionally used Zambian examples and Bantu people in particular to ensure a measure of safety for my dear African readers!

      For non-Africans, the evenness of English verse, rhyme, and time will be missed. My explanation is simply this: Bantu poetry has uneven time, and verse. Our royal praise singers, (called, Imbongi in South Africa) illustrate the point. This work was intended to be a word of hope for free distribution in Sub-Saharan Africa, but in the last nine years that has not been possible until I stumbled on Smashwords. Conventional wisdom now dictates that I charge a nominal amount, but I trust that this free copy will inspire you to read my other works. I have revised this work and hope anyone with a heart for Africa will find inspiration and hope enough to engage Africa meaningfully (work with God in Africa).

      Thank you for your support!

      Bishop Jonathan M. Mumbi PhD

      Chapter One: A Better Africa.

      Before you cringe

      at the thought of a better Africa,

      let faith, hope, and love singe your every doubt.

      Where was hope in the dark ages of Europe?

      Yes, where was faith in the thirty-year war?

      Or the hundred years of war?

      Where was love when years of enlightenment transformed droplets of blood to streamlets?

      Enlightened Europe convulsed with bloody revolutions,

      the tonnage of whose carnage leaves the world with more than a tinge of disbelief?

      When Europe attempted to live as a multinational state,

      the singeing results put Africa’s present wars and woes on the fringe.

      Between the Caesars and Kaisers streamlets of blood turned into rivulets. The morality of the new publicans of the new republics judged the sinfulness of the European Church as their descendents continue to do today.

      The speck in the eye of the Church is always more spectacular than the beam in the publican Republic's eye!

      If African sinfulness does not divert Europe's attention, let someone say,

      Where was love when these seeds of selfishness turned rivulets of blood to rivers of blood with World Wars twenty years apart?

      Yes, where was love when colonialism took Africa apart?

      Whether Africa looks West or East

      She does not come off worst or least.

      This continent of young nations, has hit the ground running,

      Yes Africa is sprinting among old marathon running nations

      They cannot understand why young Africa is huffing and puffing,

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