My Teacher Taught Me Nonsense

My Teacher Taught Me Nonsense

“In June 1796, Mungo Park discovered River Niger,”

our teacher tutored us,

“Diogo Câo discovered the mouth of River Congo, 1482

David Livingstone discovered Zambezi River 1851

And later discovered Victoria Falls, 1855

Richard Burton discovered Lake Tangayika….”

Teacher instructed us this falsehood

for generation after generation

yet none of us stopped our teacher or asked,

“But, teacher, wait a minute,

this just doesn’t make any sense:

were we not here before Mr. Park came…?”

“Karl Marx discovered communism with Hegel

Antony van Leeuwenhoek discovered

bacteria, and Joseph Lister discovered antiseptics.”

“Hippocrates is the father of medicine

Freud the father of psychoanalysis

Einstein the father of relativity theory

Picasso the father of modern art….”

“Britain founded Nigeria

Belgians founded Congo

France founded Senegal.”

And my ancestors, my people?

“Your ancestors discovered nothing.

They are the fathers of Zero.

Your people founded Nil. Zilch. Nix. Zip. Nada.”

Teacher taught us to hate our parents

and call them illiterates,

hate our language and call it vernacular

hate our home and call it village

hate our skin and bleach it pale

hate our hair and fry it out

hate our religion and call it evil

hate our god and call it Satan

hate our dream and call it impossible

hate our vision and call it crazy

and hate ourselves

hate our things

hate our souls

hate our spirits

hate our guts

and crave their

their, their, their

their, and crave their

and crave and crave, crave, crave, crave….