Philo Ikonya reads at Rådhuset to mark World Poetry Day and her work as a writer in Refuge in Oslo

Lioness at Samburu adopts an Oryx

World Poetry Day (UNESCO)  1st March 2012. I was invited to read poems at the City Hall in Oslo, Rådhuset. This is a great honor and the speeches about my work were unexpected and wonderful. The venue was Munchrommet. Edvard Munch is famous for great art and I had the honour to get so many photographs done in a great hall. See them in the link just below. My theme was motherlands and that included Kenya, Norway and the whole world. For everywhere someone calls home is a motherland.

Avslutning for fribyforfatter Philo Ikonya - Deichmanske bibliotek - Oslo kommune

Namunyak, wise lion......

Maybe you should claw us!

You are greater than

greedy presidents.

With the focus of a cat,

you feed and care for those,

outside your clan and plan,

tribe and specie and race,

the dearth of Somalia,

and the diamond sides of Congo, the world....

I read a poem about a lioness called Namunyak, the lucky one. She lives (d) in Samburu Park in Kenya. She adopted oryxes and gazelles (babies) six times and she fed them and protected them from being eaten by predators. Ordinarily these animals are eaten by lions. She inspired me with regard to tribalism and other forms of discrimination and non-acceptance of the other. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1746828.stm

This poem and others can be found in This Bread of Peace, a Lapwing Publication, Belfast, by Philo Ikonya  2010. You can find it here as a google book.http://books.google.no/books?id=COxEHp9hLW4C&printsec=frontcover&hl=no&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

I also read Loved from Out of Prison - Love Songs. This book is available as an e-book in English on Kindle
 http://www.shahrazadeu.org/en/content/philo-ikonya-available-kindle and available here:
http://www.amazon.com/Out-Prison-Love-Songs-ebook/dp/B006VXIZMK

Avslutning for fribyforfatter Philo Ikonya - Deichmanske bibliotek - Oslo kommune

 

NAMUNYAK OF THE MAASAI

They called her Namunyak.

I would have called her Sankara,

Makeba, Wangarĩ or Ellena.

Me katilili or Nyanjirũ.

Who mothers Afrika?

In Namunyak is all these.

She is the mother lion,

hidden in Samburu Park,

in Kenya, under a bush

and sun bathing

her dusty golden coat.

They call her Namunyak, the lucky one.

She spreads peace to all, not greed.

Yes, Bahati, Bakhita, Mũnyaka.

Ma Lion what is your secret?

You feed and adopt six baby oryx,

six even times, quite odd.

You know the oryx are usually your food,

but you feed your victuals,

and not to make sumptious

a feast later.

You protect with all your strength.

Maybe you should claw us!

You are greater than

greedy presidents.

With the focus of a cat,

you feed and care for those,

outside your clan and plan,

tribe and specie,

the dearth of Somalia,

and the diamond sides of Congo.

In Kenya,

three presidencies you beat,

all of them fallen, on the sword

of tribal discrimination,

the rim of the nation weakening

till collapse.

You beat countries giving visas

with grudges, strings attached and

humiliation, I say often, of the poor people.

Would you redeem humanity?

One of their own,

is always, the rejected,

prophet,

rubbished,

and offered gall

for wine.

With love you are so powerful,

your neighbours they kill human Albinos

to get rich of a sudden on death!

Would you cut our own chains?

The misery we tie around our necks?

You come home to find,

Mzee Lion has eaten your oryx.

For one, you mourn and fume,

for long. You get five more

to no harm.           

Have you seen how our fear has ‘children’ these days,

Fear with grandparents and roots?

Have you seen the fears of children today?

You sit there six times,

a puzzle, posing they think.

To your lesson,

We are here to give honour.

I dress you with a mane.

Incredible mother of beauty.

Karibu Mama.

Hakuna matata.

Come Japanese to see your Nisei,

San with Nikon,

snap, snap.

Another face of Africa.

Eyes open wide,

People of all races are back,

do they turn to make Africa?

Is pigmentation enough?

Come American Indians,

Australians.

Come all to take an image of harmony home.

Come they with verses spoken long ago.

But you just sit there Namunyak,

And I award you for feeding your food,

sensing life in disaster.

To peace and freedom.

You challenge we give to suckle.

Delicadamente

Dedicadamente

Na upendo wa amani,

Mkate huu wa amani na wa uhuru.

Feed, house,

Water,

Keep it,

Like in safe villages or,

cities,

in the jungle,

in your style.