By T S Eliot

O Lord, deliver me from the man of excellent intention and  impure heart, for the heart is deceitful above all things, and   desperately wicked.

Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite and Geshem  the Arabian: were doubtless men of public spirit and zeal.

Preserve me from the enemy who [...]]]> Choruses from “The Rock”, 1934.

By T S Eliot

O Lord, deliver me from the man of excellent intention and  impure heart, for the heart is deceitful above all things, and   desperately wicked.

Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite and Geshem  the Arabian: were doubtless men of public spirit and zeal.

Preserve me from the enemy who has something to gain: and from the friend who has something to lose.

Remembering the words of Nehemiah the Prophet: “The trowel  in hand, and the gun rather loose in the holster.”

Those who sit in a house of which the use is forgotten: are like snakes that lie on mouldering stairs, content in the sunlight.

And the others run about like dogs, full of enterprise, sniffing and barking: they say, “This house is a nest of serpents, let us destroy it. And have done with these abominations, the turpitudes of the  Christians.”

And these are not justified, nor the others.

And they write innumerable books; being too vain and distracted  for silence: seeking every one after his own elevation, and  dodging his emptiness.

If humility and purity be not in the heart, they are not in  the home: and if they are not in the home, they are not in the City.

The man who has builded during the day would return to his heart at nightfall: to be blessed with the gift of silence, and doze before he sleeps.

But we are encompassed with snakes and dogs: therefore some  must labour, and others must hold the spears.

Photo Credits: A preacher ministers at a busy market in Jinja, Uganda.

When it talks The rain listens The Cloud Claps The river reels And Rolls with laughter The Lake never knows What to do with its excess of grace The streamside is a choir Of waving ferns

Water has its own language:

When swollen into flood Its fury is brown (And crimson-deep in parts) It races through the streets On legs for ever unseen Grabs everything in sight With [...]]]> Water by Niyi Osundare

When it talks
The rain listens
The Cloud Claps
The river reels
And Rolls with laughter
The Lake never knows
What to do with its excess of grace
The streamside is a choir
Of waving ferns

Water has its own language:

When swollen into flood
Its fury is brown
(And crimson-deep in parts)
It races through the streets
On legs for ever unseen
Grabs everything in sight
With hands beyond the eye
It befriends the sky
Purloins its thunder

Water has its own language:

And teeth filed with salt
And ears waxed with words
And tongue forked with tales
Its tale is
Long as the Nile
Massive as the Mississippi
Parting continents
Coupling countries
A thousand I-lands

Water has its own language:

In the we-seas
Of the season
Of the sun
Of the wind’s sweeping war-rant
The rolling boulder
From upland quarry
And the slow, slow
Dance in the region
Below the mountain

Water has its own language:

Its Robin Hood tenacity
Its shifting fortunes
Its partial largesse
Between waste and want
Plenty and penury
And the Thirsty threat
Of Looming sands
Fishes learn, often too late
The mortal ambiguity of water

Taken from: Water Testaments: Anthology of poems on water and water-related issues. Edited by Greg Mbajiorgu.

Photo: A fisherman reaches for his boat’s anchor.

Lao Tzu (604-517 BC), Hua Hu Ching, Verse 52:

Living by Returning to the Mother

All under heaven have a common beginning. This beginning is the Mother of the world. Having known the Mother, we may proceed to know her children. Having known her children, we should go back and hold on [...]]]> A woman inspects the leaves of a tree in Jinja, Uganda.

Lao Tzu (604-517 BC), Hua Hu Ching, Verse 52:

Living by Returning to the Mother

All under heaven have a common beginning.
This beginning is the Mother of the world.
Having known the Mother,
we may proceed to know her children.
Having known her children,
we should go back and hold on to the Mother.

Keep your mouth shut,
guard the senses,
and life is ever full.
Open your mouth,
always be busy,
and life is beyond hope.

Seeing the small is called clarity;
keeping flexible is called strength.
Using the shining radiance,
you return again to the light
and save yourself misfortune.

This is called
the practice of eternal light.

So limping, my soul, we will together go…” What are you, my soul, you lean and bloodless thing Like a withered fig that has survived the winter? In youth it was so different: then the blood Sang along the veins and it was easy both to love [...]]]> A ruined boat sits at the beach in Lake Victoria in Jinja, Uganda.

So limping, my soul, we will together go…”
What are you, my soul, you lean and bloodless thing
Like a withered fig that has survived the winter?
In youth it was so different: then the blood
Sang along the veins and it was easy both to love and welcome love.
But when you are old grace conquers only by hard victories;
You are stiffened, crusted by the salt spray
After the long sea voyage.

The lanes of memory may be as green
As in the year’s paradise of spring.
It is the immediate present that slips unremembered,
Yet in love’s presence there is only this one moment—
A question not of time but of understanding,
As when beauty seeps through the crevices of the soul
Burning the dead wood and illuming the self’s verities.—
This, only after a long journey.

So limping, my soul, we will together go
Into the city of the shining ones,
Of those whose crutches have been cast into the sea,
Whose love is garlanded across the festal stars;
And we with them will bow before the sceptred wisdom of a child.
The trembling broken years shall be restored
And these shall be our offering; for by them we shall know
Love has travailed with us all the way.
ML., A nun of Burnham Abbey

Daniel Handler “Adverbs”

STREET CHILDREN IN AFRICA Stroll through a market or past a hotel or at the roadside of any major street in the center [...]]]> The world gets grimy and the love object is in stark relief from its surroundings. This is love, a pretty thing on an ugly street and why wouldn’t you pick it up…?.

Daniel Handler “Adverbs”

STREET CHILDREN IN AFRICA
Stroll through a market or past a hotel or at the roadside of any major street in the center of most African capitals, towns or urban areas and you cannot fail to see them.

They are stopping cars and people to beg or to ask for work. You will see others shining shoes, selling sundry articles of uncertain origin, or hurrying to wash the windscreens of cars stopped at traffic signals. Yet others would be roaming around or gathered in small groups waiting for something to do. Look at them closely -their faces show strain and sadness, their clothes are ragged and dirty, others appear hungry suffering from ill-health and malnutrition. There is something mature beyond their years in their haunted expressions. At night, you can see them huddled along street corners, in doorways, or in any dry and secluded corner. They are the representatives of a growing multitude of children who have become known as the “street children”.

The twenty-first century presents a hostile face to many millions of children in many African countries. An increasing number of children are being forced to the streets as result of poverty, abuse, torture, rape abandonment or orphaned by AIDS. Human rights violations against children in the 1990s have become a common and disturbing occurrence in many African countries. Indeed denial of basic human and legal rights including the right to life, liberty and security as a person to children are now a defining feature of the African socio-economic landscape.

Today, street children are a major issue. Tomorrow, if present trends continue, they could be a blight on urban civilization. For Africa, tomorrow is already here. Street children are not only a blight on urban civilization; they pose a serious obstacle to overall socio-economic development in Africa. The world and Africa in particular are witnessing rapid and wide ranging socioeconomic and political changes. There is rapid urbanization, run away population growth and increasing disparities in wealth. The introduction of structural adjustment programmes and globalization are changing the very fabric of African society. One of the negative consequences of these changes is the emergence of large numbers of children on the streets.

In Tanzania they are known as ‘watoto wa mitaani’, in Kenya they are known as ‘chokorra’ and in The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) they are called moineaux or ’sparrows’. By whatever name they are called, what stands out is the sad fact that everywhere, children living and working on the street are ignored, scorned, mistreated and misunderstood by society and by governments.

“People don’t love us,” says Tigiste, a 12-years-old girl, who sells roasted barley and begs for change at stoplights in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa (UNICEF, 1985). The observation made by this young girl illustrates the attitude of most of us. Society tends to view these children as troublemakers, a nuisance or menace that needs to be taken of the streets. Few stop to ponder on the reasons why these children are on the streets, where it is apparent they are not enjoying themselves.

Identifying reasons for the existence of street children is crucial in finding a permanent solution to the problem. There are those who argue that the emergence of street children is bound up with the totality of urban problems – that the phenomenon is exclusively urban: there are no “rural street children.” While it is true that street children are usually found in urban areas, many of these children have rural origins.

We as individuals and as a society have failed to live up to our responsibilities as parents and as custodians of the young. The community tends to hide its head in the sand hoping that the problem will go away. Unfortunately the problem is not going away, but increasing to alarming proportions. Traditionally in an African society, a child was normally a member of a community and could not be separated from it. This meant that even the entitlement that a child deserves was a community matter. Shorter (1974) observe that in traditional East African societies, the child was educated and socialized by the community for membership into the community. A child in Africa used to be the responsibility of each individual member of society and therefore children had no need to fend for themselves.

They were loved and cared for by society. Today’s children are the responsibility of individual parents and are ignored by the rest of the community. While the number of street children grows by the day, the community remains silent with the exception of a few individuals and organizations. There is no community outrage to the problem. We shake our heads and moan about ‘watoto wa siku hizi!‘ (The children of today!) and go about our daily business. The few soft hearted or religious ones will throw a few shillings to these miserable children and move on.

Extracted from a paper by:

PETER ANTHONY KOPOKA (Ph.D). UNIVERSITY OF DAR-ES-SALAAM

INSTITUTE OF DEVELOPMENT STUDIES for the “INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON STREET CHILDREN AND STREET CHILDREN’S HEALTH IN EAST AFRICA.”

TITLE OF PAPER: THE PROBLEM OF STREET CHILDREN IN AFRICA: AN IGNORED TRAGEDY.