The Old And New African Evening

Balogun Oluwatimilehin Benjamin was born in 1987, in Nigeria’s historical town of Illesha. He is one of the rising voices echoing the rhythms of Africa’s soul and taking African poetry to the future. B writes with a depth and style that is both appealing and inspiring. This poem is one of the beautiful pieces in his vast collection.

The Old And New African Evening

I did swear it

See how time flies

Even almost to eye it flew

The old African evening

That newly-born Africans imagine

If ever had existed the old cool time at all

I’ve heard elders chat

Too in my tenderness have on the run imagined

After a long hard day on farm

Comes the enjoyable, gazeful and ever entertaining African evening

Compensating for the day’s hardness

Who would have ever doubt the enjoyment

In that cloud when cool air is mixed

With the pleasantness of those African serene

This the memory of the old compensating African evening

How it now becomes                            

What time pronounces

All the pleasantness of that past African pastime

Is of little significance

Men of nowadays, having spent all day in comfort

Surely reciprocal must withdraw such a pleasant moment

But consequently wise are they for scheduling these evenings tight

To have not the slightest of those memory

Of that enjoyable time of those days

That were perhaps extinct

T’is the new African evening.

 Balogun Oluwatimilehin Benjamin 2012