Feelings: Names Singing A Song & Cerdotola Today Poem by Margaret Alice

Names Singing...

I’m looking forward to three days of
unmitigated bliss, total freedom and
fun, chatting, laughing with everyone
sharing my passion for life at
this kind of conference

Freedom is sweet when it is rare,
a real special treat, having some
Francophones at my disposal is
the best part of it, pestering them
all day long to get the latest hits

This will be a conference hosted by
ACALAN to discuss the problem of
developing the mother tongues of
of Africa, I can’t wait to meet these
exotic names:

Messieurs Souleymane Sangare and
Adama Samassekou, names singing
a song in my ears, they will not be so
glad to see me, but I’ve been looking
forward to ACALAN

For more than two years, I love the
speeches and enthusiasm, expanding
in my mind on their plans, interacting
with total strangers, bound by a single
purpose, making them laugh

Seeing to it that they rediscover their
joie de vivre while plotting about
creating a brave new world for
all mother-tongue speakers
in Africa!


So Cerdotola Today

Riding a bus in the caress of African sun
minute dots in the matrix of consciousness
on our way to an ACALAN conference on
African mother tongues – 1st-world vehicles
on endless roads in the vastness of Africa –
grass vibrating green, shimmering awareness;
African rhythms rock me in gentle contentment –
swaying branches dance elegantly in fragile
winds – a handsome pantomime of unity,
guileless abandonment to sweet existence;
golden grass holding memories of long ago
lions stalking their prey; an upsurge
of sky sun-kissed in blue, grass stalks
waving in the wind, waving to me as we pass

I’m rolling new acronyms on my tongue:
CERDOTOLA*, doesn’t matter what it means,
it seems to say ‘without care, insouciance’,
I’d love to say to my acquaintance:
I feel so cerdotola today – Do you feel
EACROTANAL*? No, I’m not in pain, I’ve had
root canal work done ages ago… I skipped
breakfast, it makes me nauseous, now I’m
feeling hunger pains, making me eacrotanal;
the bus atmosphere is so CICIBA*- sweet
flowing rhythms and song, palm trees
outside for a tropical touch, two cars
kissing amorously on a transporter –
a Volvo and Ford – what will the baby be –
A Forvol or a Volford?

This reminds me, I’ve fallen in love with
a songbird in our bottle store, he sways
his head as I move mine, beady black eyes
watching me, we play a game of assent
while swaying our heads…


* CERDOTOLA Regional Centre for Research and Documentation of Oral Tradition and for the Development of African Langauges - Cameroon

* EACROTANAL East African Centre of Research on Oral Traditional and National Languages - Tanzania

* CICIBA International Centre of Bantu Civilisations - Gabon