The Revolutionary
\n<\/b>Andr\u00e9e Blouin, 1921-1986
\n<\/i>
\nA hungry child can never truly sleep. In the orphanage
\nfor sinful offspring \u2013 our fathers white, our mothers
\nAfrican \u2013 the nuns were merciless, severe. I shook
\nby night inside a narrow, iron cot, aware only
\nof my body\u2019s hunger, a heavy shadow
\nshuttering my limbs. I prayed for pity
\nin the nothing-blue that slowly turned
\nto grey \u2013 another dawning misery. My later
\nlove for liberty began beneath the weight.
\nSoftened after rain, I ate the red-mud bricks
\nthat walled the yard in fingerfuls, to ease
\nthe ricket-sting within my belly. Eventually
\nI sickened; a nurse and officer appeared
\nto valuate my case; the reverend mother
\neyed me down. Knuckle-tough, the holy
\norder washed their fists of me, like dirt.
\nCruelty, you see, ensures reiteration:
\nthe orphanage and colony were images
\nof one another, their legatees incurably
\nsuspicious, incapable of kindness
\nto the Africans they ruled. Sickly, sore,
\ndispatched away, my life began again
\nin freedom: mending coverlets and dresses
\nfor imperious fran\u00e7aises<\/i>, plantation wives
\nintent on delegation. I worked, in truth,
\nunendingly, determined to survive:
\nmy labour served me well. When
\nGuinea first, and then the Parti Solidaire<\/i>
\ndemanded heartened soul, unstinting
\ndedication, day and night, I gave my all,
\nhumming like a never-empty engine
\nof vivacity for Africa, my nation. Long
\ndebased, the cresting Congo filled
\nmy veins with euphony and joy \u2013 a song
\nof jubilation, born of fire, tears, and blood,
\nnow winnowed to an ache. I strode as one
\namong the risen generation. Possessed
\nof an uncommon poise, Gizenga always
\nseemed at home in quietude: the Belgians
\nfeared his silence, knowing him a strategist,
\npercipient and fierce; he listened like a man
\nin meditation, untroubled by the fray
\nto which he nonetheless devoted
\nboth the clarity and passion of a saint.
\nStruggling together, comrades in the fight,
\nI considered him a friend. And dear Patrice…
\nas if in fever, I recall his grace, the easy
\ntrust he held in those around him, and
\nthe smiling way he seemed to bless
\nthe people he addressed, gliding
\nlightly when he stepped, alive to hope,
\nassured of the integrity of service
\nto the cause: the Congolese empowered
\nby the Congolese themselves, the copper-
\nhearted mercenaries tossed into the tide.
\nA dignified idealist, he radiated calm.
\nAssessing the equation, the European
\nlackeys sprang a trap: the president
\nrenditioned, his body would be cut
\nin blocks, and dipped in acid
\nswilling in a barrel. They burned
\nthe living trace of him to vapour, ordering
\nthe rest of us to leave or disappear.
\nThey kept a single tooth for decoration.
\nHis dream and he are vivid to me still.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Revolutionary Andr\u00e9e Blouin, 1921-1986 A hungry child can never truly sleep. In the orphanage for sinful offspring \u2013 our fathers white, our mothers African \u2013 the nuns were merciless, severe. I shook by night inside a narrow, iron cot, aware only of my body\u2019s hunger, a heavy shadow shuttering my limbs. I prayed for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":246,"featured_media":18121,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[521,522,1479,1687,1688,1695,1696,7318,7320,7341,7811,8922],"class_list":["post-18120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","tag-andree-blouin","tag-andree-blouin-poem-about","tag-cassandra-voices-the-revolutionary","tag-ciaran-orouke-poet","tag-ciaran-orourke-cassandra-voices","tag-ciaran-orourke","tag-ciaran-orourke-irish-poet","tag-poem-the-revolutionary","tag-poem","tag-poetry","tag-revolutionary","tag-the"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/246"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}