Pulling Back the Veil on "Who Will Rise?"

This is the sixth in a series of blog posts concerning reader-favorite poems from my most recent book, A Poet Speaks of Empire. This post will pull back the veil on "Who Will Rise?" This particular poem concerns the new scramble for Africa and asks a question at the heart of the book, mainly, which world power will emerge victorious in this new era? Does foreign investment in Africa from emerging market nations like Brazil, Russia, India and China represent a new age of imperialism? Or, does it, in fact, represent a new partnership where sub-Saharan Africa shares in the gains of investment? Here's the poem:

WHO WILL RISE?

A vivid past forces our African

imaginations —

now faded memories of Sundiata

and colonial revolutionaries like

Sarraounia  and Nehanda:

beacons, forerunners, trailblazers

in a lost time, whose past battles

parallel our renewed struggle.

What have we learned from our past?

Do we have an answer to imperialism?

Questions that demand answers –

questions we cannot fathom.

What new strength has been added?

Is this a time to conquer or to be

re-conquered?

New masters and old mingle in

our African imaginations begging

the question, “Who will rise?”

In this poem, I ask the question, "Is this a time to conquer or to be/re-conquered?" Is what we're seeing today merely a second scramble for sub-Saharan Africa's mineral resource wealth or is foreign investment more meaningful? Is this a time to reflect on ancient revolutionaries like Sundiata, Sarraounia and Nehanda, who were "beacons, forerunners, [and] trailblazers" who aided in throwing off the chains of imperialism in times past? Finally, "new [colonial] masters," like Brazil, like Russia, like China "mingle" with "old," like Great Britain, France and Portugal, "begging the question 'Who will rise?'"--who will emerge, who will reign? This is a piviotal moment in history--an appropriate time for a poet to speak of empire. 

My continued reading on Africa's rise seems to point to a happy ending for the continent. According to a recent issue of The Network Journal, Brazil's public and private sectors have pledged to re-invest and transfer technologies to the continent in order to repay a "solidarity debt" for the many Africans taken as slaves across the middle of the last millennium. According to former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva: Brazil, which is the world's sixth-largest economy, "owes its current strength to the more than 300 years of slavery during which we exploited the sweat and blood of millions of Africans.”

Brazil's government and multinational corporations plan to make strategic investments in everything from physical infrastructure to agriculture to technology to the auto sector in order to propel growth and expand Africa's growing middle class. Brazil invested $28 billion  in projects on the continent in 2011, up dramatically from $4 billion in 2000. China and Brazil will continue to compete for the demands of the burgeoning middle class. Africa continues to be an increasingly lucrative place to do business. If Brazil and China are any example, the future looks bright for Africa.