Dear earth, I dey write this letter
From home: a zone in Kinshasa where they steer death
My culture’s sheer birth
Ancestors sabi, afei diɛ daabi
Emergency sekof lobbyists collect your tear worth
It’s serious, prior to 18th century,
Scientists no suspect prehistoric climates go different from modern period
Resource rush lef the race men delirious
If you’re curious to take a cue
Stay in tune, your landscape mirrors terror they deal you
Nkanga’s art could teach you
Architects of capitalism feel you
Touch you in wrong places like rapist men do
Let’s not pretend, unlooking the trend, energy received from sun, it’s tense
Check stats and info
Equilibrium loses meaning, seasons weakened, Check how the wind moves
To pin the direction of migration of our indigenous people
The ocean currents with broken silence
Greenhouse gas concentrations following high trends
Ocean-atmo circulations shown on troubled timescales
Ozone depletion sending tensions in bones of scientists
Fossil fuel combustion, envisioned through swollen eyelids
Impressions bold on mindprints
Dear earth, aerosols pull on air of souls, there’s offshore negligence
Mother of the rock, soil, sediments
We gather at the source, pure elements
Sincerely yours
(...it's like a good pair of shoes when you put some shine on...)
Climate get emergency,
Check, Public safety tendencies
Climate change is only news to social snails
Public safety crisis on a global scale
Mother Earth we understand you’re rather upset
The forest cover got nicked
The pressure of deforestation collects under your breast
Bees leave in fleets,
Plastic peaks on the turfs,
We inhabit in methane release
Observing new weather patterns, umbrellas parting
Volcanic eruptions, cosmic flux happening
We check your energy budget to remedy the subject
Humans: usual suspects, newscasters stammering
In China, they are tree planting but the Chinese got our corrupt leaders to sell Atewa for bauxite mining - mek yo mind dey ofainɛ
Ɛnam biibi so na nsuo wiɛ
Asaase yɛ daakye mma diɛ
credits
from Blind Spot,
released August 12, 2020
Produced by Nomad
Recorded and Mixed by Jean-Charles Versari at PopTones Studios, Paris
Kwame Aidoo (b. 1986) is a writer, cultural manager and artist from Ghana with a BSc biochemistry and biotechnology from
KNUST and MOOC Managing the Arts: Cultural Organizations in Transition. He is inspired by West African oral folklore, polyrhythms and symbolism to discuss sociopolitical contexts. He is the author of Ananse Makes Aurora. Mud House Address is his most recent album released....more