Bob Kihara is a Kenyan poet, writer, communicator, space enthusiast and environmentalist. He has more than three-and-a-half decades’long experience in journalism and media relations at national and international level. He has worked professionally as a journalist for a Kenyan newspaper, with the United Nations as a Communication Officer doing duty in Kenya and Somalia with wide travel, and as a Press Officer at the Switzerland-based headquarters of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
No Sir, we say, you aren’t going to kick us out of the Mediterranean and its sparkling, emerald waters.
We won’t let you take us for a ride down that path.
That won’t happen, just won’t do.
We give the Mediterranean a fresh sweetness and blossom, right from the origins of the Nile to where it empties itself along Egypt’s coastline at Alexandria.
There’s no way you will keep the Savannah and the highlands of Central and Eastern Africa from the stunning Mediterranean.
If you can do so, that will be akin to taking the Nile away from that beautiful coastline.
All the way from Lake Victoria and the Ethiopian Highlands.
We feed the Mediterranean Sir, with what we can, giving it some vital nutrients it needs, for man, animal and fish,
Harvesting them as they prod along the Nile all the way into this rich sea.
And now, you want us to keep off.
No Sir, we say again,
We are conjoined twins,
Joined together at the hip, Africa, Europe and the blue Mediterranean.
We won’t stop you from having a refreshing dip or swim in it, or reclining in its beautiful, sandy beaches,
We won’t stop you either from polluting it, but we’d be happy if you stopped doing so.
We can’t stop you from dumping toxic waste within it, but we would be happy if you didn’t.
And hell no, we can’t stop you from fighting naval wars in it, but we’d be happy if you never did so.
We can’t stop those using it as a transport route for goods or aircraft carriers with all kinds of armaments destined for war in the Middle East or Ukraine, but we’d be happy if the conflicts ended.
However, give us breathing space, as the Mediterranean suckles the Nile.
We are aware of the sunny beaches that mark the Mediterranean and its territory, even if we can’t put a name to them.
From Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt in Africa,
To the European territories of Italy, Spain, Malta and Cyprus. And Lebanon in the west of Asia too.
However, cut us some slack, as they say.
Which Mediterranean is this whose beauty you want to distance from the Savannah?
And yet, this sea is bound to Africa and Africans daily.
Tell us, which route this is that immigrants from Africa seek to find their way into Europe,
Loaded dangerously on rickety boats hoping for a better world in Italy and elsewhere?
Tell us why you want to cut the umblical cord to Africa and the Savannah from the Mediterranean Sea.
Have you joined the ranks of those who want to blank out Africa and Africans from Europe? From a pathway to Europe that has been there for ages?
Do you need a reminder of those that traverse Africa’s deserts tolerating hunger, thirst and danger?
All for a chance to wash their hands, feet and boots in the hope of the Mediterranean waters?
No Sir, the Mediterranean is more than a sea.
It is a daunting symbol of hope and life in the promised land for desperate immigrants.
Even when the trip to their land of hope is fraught with danger.
Tell us to say all the sweet things about the Mediterranean,
But don’t try to stop us from singing it’s praises from Africa and elsewhere.
We Sir, know what the Mediterranean does to our aspirations.
It gives us love, though our hearts skip a little bit. Yes, they do so, every time we think of the hazard amid hope it symbolises for immigrants on over-loaded boats.
And yet, you want us silent about this vast sea of troubles and hope?
And now you tell us, keep the Savannah from the Mediterranean?
Do you know the story of Ancient Rome, the Colosseum and gallant warriors confronting each other or lions as Romans cheered?
Do you know how Africa got to Rome?
And now you want to wipe out the love between Rome and Africa from memory?
No Sir, the Mediterranean joins the Savannah to the Alps. Since the days of Hannibal.
And his elephants too.
The Mediterranean is where Europe, the Middle East and Africa should celebrate a beautiful sea of peace, opportunity and unity in diversity, not despair in separation.
That’s a simple enough reason to keep the Mediterranean both European and African.
And what greater beauty is there than this, that which symbolises both hope and tragedy in one sentence?
No Sir, we will sing the Mediterranean’s praises,
The African way. Right across, linking it to Europe.
What greater tale of hope and affection is there than this?
A tale of beauty and danger with love, resilience and their aspirations combined.
No Sir, the story of beauty and the Mediterranean is complex.
It is a beauty of love from Africa to Europe,
Woven with danger and love on the precipice.
Poetry in this post: © Bob Kihara
Published with the permission of Bob Kihara