West India [Spoken word]

WEST INDIA from Maximilian Forte on Vimeo.

[Poem begins at position 1:38 in video]

WEST INDIA
By Roi Guanapo Ankhkara Kwabena

There is not west india
There is not west india
There is not west india
There is not west india

So how dare you baptise our emerald isles
home to Carnavales?

There is not west india

These mountain tops of Atlantis,
aquamarine basin of unclaimed shipwreck treasures
soothing drunken dreams of criminals, pirates, buccaneers, and slave traders

There is not west india

Here still live humming bird, bacchac, golden frog, manatee, caiman and 'gouti

There is not west india
There is not west india

Look, take back identities you gave my windswept volcanic rocks
St. Croix, St. Kitts, St. Eustatius, St. Vincent, St. Thomas
these names of saints made hallow by some christian praise
yet who have never ever tread our shores
bitten by sandflies nor mosquitoes
dem never even feel a hurricane
or even suck mango or sugar cane.

There is not west india
There is not west india

Look, we reclaim ayiti,
xaymaca,
iere,
wadadli,
laimuiga,
aloi,
yuluma,
playground of julica
our rainbow

There is not west india

Anguilla, that eel remains my secret retreat
maluhana with reverence to jocaho
in rainy season

there is not west india

sadogla
the salt of our tears
get thee hence, St. Maarten! patron of tourism, spending US dollars
yet not half French, not half Dutch, but plenty cruise ship, plenty cruise ship, plenty cruise ship.

There is not west india

Look, look, look! Raleigh on fire, cancer and legal hysteria
multinational tobacconist running for cover
Oh Tobago, aloe vera, was never home to Man Friday or Robinson Crusoe (there is not west india)

There is not west india.

Neither can la isla de la trinity
replace my paradise, Iere, home of Yaya

There is not west india

Here is not west india, here is not west india!
nor the Taino mistaken Sarawak
how dare you call the Galibi a Carib?

There is not west india

Warahoon and karifuna children
still eating pone
Yaya!

There is not west india
There is not west india

Yaya! Yaya!

Source: Reprinted with the kind permission of the author.
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A Note From The Gull

Thank you Roi! Your spirit lives on!

Thank you, Max Forte, for remembering Roi and sharing his work.

"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare