Ayekoo!*

for Marcus Mosiah Garvey

The son of a stonemason

Born in St Ann’s Bay,

Jamaica, in the Caribbean

Marcus is black and handsome

He settles his ship in Harlem

And begins to chorus

With a chivalric passion

Beckoning his frail kindred:

Come on board, come

Come; let us go home

We that are truly blacks

And are used as shoe-racks

Stepped-on as doormats

And chased, and killed as rats

Come, come, oh come!


Darko Antwi

*Ayekoo is a hero’s praise-word commonly used in various Ghanaian languages to express gratitude.