Developing Like a Distant Runner
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An ode to Kenya. It is a home to large Animals: Lions, Bufallo, Leopard, Elephants and Rhinoceros (line 2). Kenya has been producing Olympic champions in middle distance and long distance runners (lines 3 & 4). Remarkable prehistoric sites of Kenya include the archaeoastronomical sites: Namoratunga on the west side of Lake Turkana and the walled settlement of Thimlich ohinga in migori county (lines 11 & 12). One of the Natural wonders of the world is the great wildebeest migration; through thousands of Kilometers in search of food (line 13). Princess Elizabeth was in a Hotel in Kenya when her father died. She immediately returned home to be crowned Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, prompting the British hunter and conservative- Jim Corbett to say “Queen Elizabeth II went up a tree in Africa a princess and came down a Queen” (lines 14 & 15). During the railway construction era, a number of Indian workers and local African labourers were attacked by 2 lions when building the rail through Tsavo (line 16). Kenya has a plan underway called Vision 2030 where it’ll reach the heights of development reached by the Asian Tigers (lines 22 to 24).
Incredible in nature, diverse in settlement
a home to the big five beasts
and a constant retailer to glory takers
of distance running in the global games event.
The scrolls of its historic make up
are chaptered by the hunter-gatherer groups;
their replacement by the agropastoralist Cushitic speakers
from the so notably called Horn of Africa;
then the Nilotic-speaking pastoralists
and finally to the migration of Bantu speaking farmers from West Africa.
Significant is the archeoastronomical sites
in the west side of Lake Turkana and in Migori county,
the awesome wildlife of the migrating great wildebeest,
the notable event of Princess Elizabeth’s climbing of its tree
just to come down from it as a Queen;
or the scary tale of two mad lions in Tsavo
are interesting outlooks even in its present day existence.
Tourism, flowers, Tea and Coffee are the beautifiers of its kitchen
yet gross poverty, child labour and prostitution defecate in its corners.
Sadly typical of a geography attributed to the dark continent,
but hope lingers, never giving up, with plans to hit visible strides
conspicuous three decades after the new millennium
setting a systems international unit for a crying baby continent
to become a competing healthy looking Adult.
Copyright © Funom Makama | Year Posted 2015
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