Dike Chukwumerije

Dike Chukwemerije is a Nigerian spoken word and performance poetry artist and author. He has eight published books, including the novel Urichindere, which won the 2013 Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Prize for Prose Fiction and a poetry theatre production made in Nigeria. Quotes Do you not know that poverty is not an Ijaw man? He will not spare the rest of us and afflict only the Ishan He will step over the river and come across the border So, when the drums sound let everybody answer A poem on the resolution has no tribe Do you not know that corruption is not from Nekede? He will not hear that Ife had no dealings with Modakeke He will wake up all of our children at might with hunger So, when the drums sound, let everybody answer. Do you not know that our enemies have no face? They are indigenes no state, they come from no place And, if this boat capsizes every one of us will go under So, when the drums sound, let everybody answer Today, I saw a mysterious thing A thing that vexed me to my very soul I saw the black man dressed like a king But crouching in the shadows with a begging bowl His children were starving in fields of cassava Dying of diseases the palm kernel could cure Homeless in a land of rock and timber “Why are you begging?”- He said, “I am poor” A poem on OKWESILIEZE We have not come to weep We have not come to despair We have not come to throw hands up And hang our heads in fear We have not come to whine We have no tears to cry We have not come to stand in line Until our time to die A poem on the beautiful ones are born Though we fought no freedom wars And no one tells the old folklores No common cause to warm our hearts Soft burning flames to light our paths No hero sung from North to South No valour that we brag about Though we stand with such a history Badly written- we are one country Though we fight against each other Kill and strike down one another Turn our rivers red with blood Pelt our faces with spit and mud Raise our children to be suspicious Of their brothers from other regions Though we stand on legs so feeble Badly broken- we are one people. A poem on we are one nation It is easy when it is easy. And it is hard when it is hard. You know? And when it is hard, the hardest part for me is the part right after the opening lines. Coming up with the opening lines is the second hardest part. But the lines that should follow the opening lines? That can be really hard for me. And the third hardest part is how to end it. So, you can see, it’s all agony when it’s hard. By the time I’m done, I have a headache. I want to sleep. But when it’s easy, it’s easy. In this case, there’s less conscious thinking and plotting. It’s more intuitive. And I typically end on a high. talks about the process of writing a poem is like to him. I see myself as an earthen pot carrying something precious. And I constantly hope, and pray, that I hold together long enough to fulfil my destiny. describes is sense of identity in a world of imagery Africa is home – at least, the tiny little part of it that the holds my roots. It is nostalgia, for a world that a generation of pan-Africanists evoked in their writings and established in the consciousness of people like me talks about what Africa means to him External links [[Category: living people]