Poem Title: “Djeli”
When everything seems
to fade away, in abyss.
I’m the one, who plays
the Kora, t
To recount the past and present,
Of the Mandé people,
The givers of hope and courage.
I learned this art, from my
grandfather’s Djeli,
Kouyaté, the man who
used poetry,
To inspire the defeat
of Sumaguru Kanté,
At the battle of Karina.
Imagine what we
have become,
Without the Djeli?
At the battle of Karina,
Sundiata fought with his swords,
He fought, with his Kora,
and words.
When the lion, like in Sundiata,
Smashed the head of the Sussu grandfather’s,
Sumaguru Kanté,
The world bowed in
submission,
To the Mandé Empire.
I’m a Djeli, the master of sword and pen,
The teller of history,
A generational icon of liberation,
The narrator of the past, present, and future.
And a word war warrior.
Musa Mwalimu Dukuly
