They Came Poem by Wensislaus Mbirimi

They came,
In wind propelled ships,
Loaded with goods for trade on many trips.

They came,
Amid peace in our beloved Africa
Foolishly we heartily welcomed them to Africa
As they traded they eyed, rather greedily our Africa

They came,
Were mystified and dumbfounded
By immense riches that were to be found

They came,
Several times their numbers increasing
Maybe then they were testing our reasoning

They came,
With a bible
To make us idle

They came,
To introduce to us a foreign religion
Making us forsake our own religion

They came,
In broad daylight and we gave them the African welcome
They returned in darkness to poach, thieve & rape abusing our welcome

They came,
Used the bible to soften our hearts & make us meek in prayer
While Africa's eyes were closed in prayer
A systematic plundering was in progress
Africa awoke to find her lands in their hands & this she could not redress

They came,
When we had the land
While they had the bible

They came,
And managed to give us the bible
While they took the land

They came,
To rule and divide us thinking they were clever
It was for long but never forever

They came,
Finally to apologise and be friends albeit to our cost
Politically they realised they had lost

Then they came,
To tell us how to draft even a basic economic policy
Still we let them experiment with many an economic policy
Africa rise - and force march them back
And make sure they never come back