Of National and Racial Archetypes

By Rose Ure Mezu  

It is often thought and people ever say

That tribes / races are this or that way

For they share a mode of being that

Makes them who they are:

They say that the Ibo from Naze

And the Hebrew from Nazareth

Are vaulting, they grasp and pile-up riches,

Spread out the world over and clan together.

For these attributes, they are baited and hated;

The Yoruba like the Latin peoples love to live life

Free and easy, rock and tango and spray the dough

Loath to suffer, dread to fight but will plot to destroy

And in time turn the traitor leaving you in the lurch.

With them you speak but please withhold your trust!

Across the Niger/Nile, Northern lords are Oligarchs

In lands where nobles rule and serfs blindly follow;

Obedient to Allah, serfs pose no threat to rulers who

Use them to sow chaos across the lands.

Then the English and Germanic tribes, rumors go,

Are hard, tricky and wherever they go, they sow

Seeds of discord and play up differences to divide,

Conquer and instigate mayhem, leaving in their wake

Ruins in what ever land they are driven to vacate

For they so love to roam around and discover places.

All this I hear it said often!

But I ponder at the truth of the color of the races –

Black, White and In-Between, Brown or Yellow:

That White is pink and lacks the pigment

That gives hue to strength and life but

To compensate, acts lordly superior

When all they achieve is a matter of necessity

Stuck as they are to an unfriendly terrain

Of snow, killer storms, quakes and such ills.

The black – ah the potent hue!

Close to earth, they claim  progenitor to races;

Strong of hue, swift of  limbs and dense of reason?

Born to obey, serve and grovel around the pink race

Who swear that in truth the Maker was no fool

To have made them  kin to the jungle ape?

Who then would stomach apey insurrection

In love and war, against law and order?

Over-reaching, darkies claim liberté et  égalité

But can man and beast be bonded in fraternité

Then among the dark-hued brothers is the Great Divide:

The New World Blacks disdain the uppity Africans

Come from across the oceans again to shove them aside

Shamming Princedom, Chiefdom, and Sheikdom

To disdain the brothers and dazzle the bronzed sisters

Only to toss the latter aside and heap on the wives –

Those polygamous cavemen – these native S-O-Bs!

To the lordly Africans, the princes of the New World -

the Akattas – are still the eels, slippery as in days of yore

For which the ancient forebears gladly shipped them off;

Hard to trust, they would sell off light-giving Orient Africa.

Loath to work, they desire and trot after the ease-filled life

Footloose and running, loving and leaving the sisters

They will not stay to bear the burden of home or heart.

These people!  One is alone who thinks to be one with them.

All this I hear said often!

Yet, of prejudice and archetypes, beware!

Things may not be the worse for wear

Since out of these biased-against groups, giants have

Arisen to give the lie to national and racial archetypes:

Did not Christ the Jew come to serve, suffer and save?

Owning all yet hoarding neither throne, land, nor staff.

Did Azikiwe, Ironsi not forsake Igbo kins to kiss their foes?

Did not Yoruba Soyinka for Igbo dignity go to prison in '67?

Did Muslim Murtala  not die for Nigeria's Christian masses?

Did Will Wilberforce not lead Whites in a fight to free Blacks?

Did John Brown not give up his life to make nonsense of color?

Did Beecher Stowe not write up a storm that burst into a big war,

Using Uncle Tom, Old Negro who in time became the New Negro?

And Malcolm and MLK, Jr., did they not earn death out of love?

Did Du Bois not champion the cause of Black and Yellow alike,

And loving the ancient sable soil, choose to sleep underneath

Its sun-kissed soil? while "Back-to-Africa" Garvey never did go;

But then as Garvey sailed sadly away, rays from Orient Africa's

Tropical Suns warmed his heart with love and more besides? 

Du Bois, Walker, Morrison, Baraka, Mezu and others yet unborn

Are empowered to urge their people to Work, Peace and Oneness!

So, Brothers and Sisters –

Black, White and In-Between, Yellow and Red,

Sink the prejudices that build up these mountains that separate

That becloud the vision and make the planet hell for all.

Truly a world of wonder there would be if only we can

Let go of Labels, Prejudices and Archetypes!    

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