Poem by Deogratias, Tanzania
Photo by Tom Winston Monboe/2014.
Deogratias is an orphan. He first lost his mother in 2009 and later in 2012 his father passed away. During World Refugee Day commemoration in Nyarugusu Camp, Northwestern Tanzania, the 13 year-old refugee boy wrote this poem.
I wish so much it wasn’t so.
Pull me out of this hell,
I will bring you price, joy and love if you help me to survive,
Shout out my name, I will follow it,
I hate the way to which I came to be,
I know that I am weak, I am alone,
I need someone to save me from disgrace, in which I am,
If I look into the eyes of a Refugee child,
I see something of myself,
Does the Word care about him?
My heart bleeds with pain when I remember my beautiful Congo, My beautiful Burundi, with no prospects of going back,
Ooh! My beautiful Africa,
Innocent blood is flowing on your sacred land,
Insurgency in the Eastern DRC, killing innocent people for the price of diamond;
Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria, Killing and displacing my people,
Rebellion in Mali, killing my people
War in Sudan, killing my people,
Al Shaabab in Somalia, displacing my people,
Cluster bombs in Syria maiming my people,
What is the International Community doing to stop the killing?
Taking time to drink red wine, meeting their endless UN, meeting with no long term solution to the problems,
Sending unmanned aircraft as if technology is the solution,
Dropping free food as if food aid is the solution,
We demand an end to War,
No to torturing, mutilating and dismembering of innocent people
No to crimes against humanity,
No to social injustice that lead to civil war
We want a world free from conflict,
A place that I can call home, East or West, Home is the best,
One family torn apart by war is too many!
