Rune Naitons’ poetery Contest for the month of August, focused on the illustration of the The vulture and the little girl, also known as “The Struggling Girl”, is a photograph by Kevin Carter which first appeared in The New York Times on 26 March 1993. It is a photograph of a frail famine-stricken boy, initially believed to be a girl, who had collapsed in the foreground with a hooded vulture eyeing him from nearby. The child was reported to be attempting to reach a United Nations feeding center about a half mile away in Ayod, Sudan (now South Sudan), in March 1993, and to have survived the incident. The picture won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography award in 1994. Carter took his own life four months after winning the prize. (Sourced from Wikidepedia)
Here are top three poems with the highest votes on the platform.
#1. AFRICAN FAMINE
Poverty kill the young generation
Africa your womb is made a grave where toddlers die
As vultures prey on the vulnerable
Children with blown up bellies crying from hunger
Here hunger strikes like a viper
She cries as she fleds with no energy
Vulture prey but don’t pray
War and famine devastates life’s
As locust and insects eat crops and robs the harvest
A girl on her knees unable to walk
Life is a reality as rich nations cash in on war
Poverty is the Dj as poor nations dance harder
Money is scare as corruption takes stage
They buy for their politicians
The African child cries of hunger
but thats echoes in the distance
Africa wealth is in your DNA
But still our own keeps us poor and struggling
Corona makes her aroma known as well
Famine and war will one day be a memory
Your children struggle with hunger with pot bellies
One day your younger generation will make you smile Africa
Africa our mother your womb is wealth and poverty
One day the cries of those that die will cry out from the ground
Poem by: Jamesthepoet
From: Namibia
#2. THE AFRICAN ORPHAN
When the men dressed in long garments with hems saying,
From dust to dust , there an African child who has turned into an African orphan,
Starts the long journey, the journey of pain, sorrow, hunger,
Nakedness and tears.
At Least for the teens but the toddlers it’s worse.
Waking up at dawn with no hope, hope of eating, dressing, education.
But surrendering to their own God of covenant.
Without any help from surrounding people,
They Starve with no food and water,
On their knees with ribs protruding , they kneel and raise their voices to their God of promise.
The world treats them with a lot of wrath,
No one cares for them but only takes what was left for them.
They are left homeless with much grief.
Whenever they kneel on hard ground,
They cry out loudly, “Lord when will you hear us”
That time when Papa and Mama are no more,
The vultures jubilate, ready to savage on the flesh of an orphan.
With no other help, they cry out to their God ” when will you remember us”
Poem by: Mwesigwa Emmanuel
Country: Uganda
#3. TEARS OF AN AFRICAN CHILD
Africa is bleeding, she’s hurt
AFRICAN children are crying
Because they lost their parents to war,
Wars which are never won
Wars that lead to famine
We have lost humanity
Our hearts turned into stone
So cold, we have become our own enemy
Why fighting each other
When our ancestors taught us unity
Children are in the streets crying
Because they’re hungry
And no one is willing to feed them
They ask where are the parents of these kids?
They forget that their parents risked their life for freedom we enjoy today
We have become so selfish
That we say ,you feed where you eat
Where’s Ubuntu?
You let innocent children devoured by Vultures
I am not a politician or prophet, I am a poet
They say, when you are angry
Do not raise you voice but raise your thoughts
Politician say there’s no money to feed the nation
But there is money to buy weapons!
Poem by: Sanchild
Country: Namibia
A special thank you to all poets who participated in the contest.
We hope you enjoyed the poems… watch out for the next edition.
