We dream of Africa!

You dream of Africa
And in your tourist eye
You envision the graceful giraffe
You imagine the roar of the King of the Jungle
Your safari gear is packed
You cannot wait to awaken
To the still silence of the African wild

They dream of Africa
Of the gold and the diamonds
That lie deep in her bosom
Many a night they lie awake
Plotting and planning
How to reach into the depths of her being
And drain her of the oil that runs in a myriad veins
Beneath the surface of her apparent poverty
And process it, ship it
And slip billions and billions of dollars
Into their bank accounts
Before Africa is fully awake

I dream of Africa
And relive the nightmare of ebola
An imported disease so devastating
It’s dread I cannot in words describe
I weep for the little babies
Who didn’t stand a chance?
Because they ventured into the world
Prematurely
And there were no incubators
To shelter them for a month or two
From the harsh realities
Of human greed

I dream of Africa
And pray there will not be a coup d’etat
While we sleep
And if there is
That the bullets will miss the kids
And spare the moms
That the fathers will not die in vain
Leaving yet more orphans
Because those left by AIDs
Are more than the funds from UNICEF can provide for
Until the next budget

We all dream of Africa
We do,
Don’t we!