Enemy Of State

Neither a politician nor honest man

Neither spiteful nor kind

Neither a rebel nor a saint

Neither a hero nor an ant 

I am as I am.

Who am I? 

"Who am I?"

You ask like it matters

What concerns you with

A faceless fameless stranger

Living in an Underground system

A regime that forms a loch ness

Cold, Nasty and brute;

Looking at the world through 

crack, needles, smokes.

Once,

Not long ago

I was a man

Full of grace 

living a Life of ease

And a home oozing lavishly,

The ceaseless chattering

of the squirrel

Attracts it's hunter

By the good of my hand

And the gluttony of my 

once Bulging belly

With my untamed rod

With which I strike 

Every skirt I fancy

 I condemned myself

To wildering wretch

The day the squirrel feeds

are few and far between,

It's days of hunger longlasting.

Like an angel

I have been casted down

Into a well.

Friends, family, lovers

That licked my oilly hands

Have all flown far away

Like Flies leave shit

At the crash of a big stone

Poverty's manignant claws

Has stripped me bare

Of garment, crown and glory

I have grown frail from hunger 

I am a scarecrow

An object to scorn

Oh the Peril!

Oh the anguish!

So Unfortunate I am

to be tormented by desire

For a memory that is out of reach,

If my misery is put on scale

It will outweigh the sands of Sahara

All my attempts at redemption

Meets rock at the bottom

My hope constantly

shattered to pieces

My soul robbed of its peace

I feel the spite brewing

Like a pompous thunder

with no rain

I am enraged by envy

Ambition's scorching lust

Keeps me up

counting sheeps,

Terrifying dreams drags my night

Dawn never coming

A captive of desire

I have grown ill natured 

from dense longings.

A thousand ways to die

I have tasted them all

Iku,

why have thou forsaken me

to rot alive?

Stretch forth your hand

In mercy and crush me

In the hay days 

Of my great decline

Into this sunken place, 

Its darkness overwhelmed me

Till it possessed me completely

Withering away my colourful petals

Now my heart is a grey, brutal place;

I am a stem, with branches covered in thorns;

an evil lurking

In the shadow of light, 

Preaching disdain with an accent of love;

In flattering insolence

I find my strength;

illusion of power

courses through my vein

It is the one with a head 

That suffers an headache,

One who has,

Has something to lose,

Like an infuriated bull set loose,

Into self destruct

I charge with my horns down 

Into the regime that has exiled me to hell.

"TRIBAL" Mark

Sacrifications are scars left by an accident, penance or purnishments even surgery. Marks whose intent is not the mark it self but it been a resulting consequence of an action intended for other purpose are scarifications. Marks left on the skin by boiling water or hot rod; whips and slashes of knives are scarifications. Traditional African incisions are made to achieve various valid purposes which may include historical, cultural, medical, religious and aesthetic reasons. Tribal incisions have been widely used by many West African ethnic groups to mark milestones in both men and women's lives, such as puberty, marriage, status. Besides being a means for beautification and identity, traditional incision marks have very strong medicinal and spiritual ties

There is evidence of the healing or curative role that this incisions play in our diverse ethnic groups. Various Marks come with thier own names and purpose, we have the Kalunga markings of the Fulani people, we have the various Abaja markings of the Oyo tribe, etc. In Yoruba it is known as "Gbere" and the process of making one of such incisions is "gbere sin sin" They vary in depth, length and strikes. 

The WHO. defines traditional medicine or health care as the total combination of knowledge and practice, whether explicable or not, used in diagnosing, preventing or eliminating physical, mental and social diseases. This practice exclusively relies on past experience and observation handed down from generation to generation verbally or in written form.

Withregards, Our shared knowledge of medicine played a vital role in our health care before colonization and foreign religions invaded our way of life and castigsted against everything foreign to them. With our vast knowledge of herbs we were able to heal the sick, cure numerous diseases including malaria, diabetes, sterility and barrenness; mental and spiritual ailments were also cured using herbs. Across Africa, every language and ethnic kingdoms have a diety to whom they pay reverence to in terms of medicine and health care. Among the Yorubas, the secrets of traditional medicine lies in the bossom of Osanyin who is the patron deity of herbs and health care, his priest are said to have vast knowledge of plants and their health benefits. It is this great men and women that know how to administer a large number of medicines into the bloodstream via incisions on the body. The incision maybe made on the face, neck, arm and abdomen down to the legs and private parts dependant on the purpose of the incisions.  In some cases, short vertical incisions are made under the eyes and other body region of some children with special spiritual connections to prevent the child from sicknesses clike pneumonia and measles. Also to stop them from reacting to elements that triggers epilepsy or convulsion; uncontrolled anger and other ADHD related illnesses. It is also used to protect the child against the sicklecell causing Abiku  by making incisions on their face and body, in Ghana, one of such marks is called Donko Markings done on a Kosanma. According to Wiki, among the ethnic groups in sub-Saharan Africa that traditionally practice scarification are the Gonja, Dagomba, Frafra, Mamprusi, Nanumba, Bali, Tɔfin, Bobo, Montol, Kofyar, Yoruba, and Tiv people of West Africa, and the Dinka, Nuer, Surma, Shilluk, Toposa, Moru, Bondei, Shambaa, Barabaig, and Maasai people of East Africa

Please share your personal experience with African medical insicions and knowledge of it. if you have one to share.

Photo credit 4toscenethesis

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