Oke’s Musings: Poetry, People and Places

Category: History

  • Alcatraz

    I was there once—intense views,spirits rising and falling,all of us entrappedon this piece of land. I heard the seagullsand the silent whisperslifting with the sunrise—people, dust, memories. Cold weather, cold hearts,remnants of man’s resentment.Nature goes on living;this is no reservation. Guilt, conscience, prayers,tears, the 1960s, modernity—love, maybe hate.Are you ever worriedabout the past? I see…

  • For Haiti

    Modern civilization or mechanization is worthless without humane affection and love Beautiful Or Not What a beautiful morning. I wake to familiar bird songs. Every morning these cheerful birds sing their hearts out, welcoming everyone to a new day. Treelines are lit up with the rays of the rising sun. The melting dew collates at…

  • African Wonders 3: The Great Pyramid

    The Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt is both the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the only one still around today. It was built for King Khufu who died in about 2465BC and is said to have taken thousands of men 20 years to construct. According to Herodotus, an Ancient Greek…

  • Mary Slessor and The Killing of Twins

    Tradition can be wrong Sometimes tradition can be wrong. This story is a good one because it tells of a good hearted woman who saved innocent babies and it’s a gruesome story because it exposes the wickedness of ancient African tradition. Mary Slessor Mary Slessor, Scottish missionary in Eastern Nigeria, was born in 1848 in…