The Beautiful Ones Have Been Born

Poems on the activation of the can-do and will-do spirit of self-help in Africa. Gone are the days when we lamented that the beautiful ones are not yet born. The future has left us in the past, and we have no more time to waste. When you're born, it's your turn to move things forward. We need to take a quantum leap forward in Africa because if you don't make anything, you'll never really own a thing. The only force that can propel us permanently out of dependence is the spirit of invention and innovation, the will and desire to find our own solutions to problems and, more than that, the thirst and flair to imagine and invent the future. This gift is given to all peoples, a treasure activated by the twin power of self-confidence and self-respect. Within this context, these poems arise, arguing in insistent poetic language the case for the acknowledging and strengthening of this aspect of human activity - invention, innovation, imagination as the motors of self-help - within the scope of African endeavour. The time for it is now, for the beautiful ones have long been born.