MP–
Thank you greatly to Adipo Sidang and other great Kenyan versifiers for contributing with your voices for leadership change and fight against dictatorship in Zimbabwe . Your voices came through at the right time. We spoke in unison as Word Guerrillas of countries haunted by the ghosts of Napoleon and demons of Adolf of Nazi. You fought with us until the day the Napoleon of Africa took off his political shoes for his late retirement. Your inspiration brought in the mojo of freedom from the grip of a stubborn tyrant Robert Mugabe .This journal is dedicated to you Kenyan Poets and writers who participated during the hot potato climax of the Zimbabwe November revolution . ALUTA the KENYAN MAGIC.
Thank you also to our readers, continue supporting the journal as we make giant steps towards a rebranded Zimbabwe. Contact us at miombopublishing@gmail.com- Mbizo Chirasha,
HAIL ZIMBABWE
Revolt rumbles through overwrought Harare air
Revolt rumbles onto her imprisoned streets
that for so long have led warrior-poets into jail cells
Revolt rumbles over the royalty of the “Blue Roof”
Revolt rumbles over the black sky gawking at rocky falls
and watery eyes hazed in the smoke of injustice.
Revolt rumbles in the feet of army tankers grinding up
the long road of slavery and dystopian revolution.
Revolt rumbles over Zimbabwe’s old hump-backed mountain
that gave her backside to Zimbabwe’s revolutionary wind
Revolt rumbles over old Mugabe’s ‘gracious’ gait
Revolt rumbles into the Zambezi and into the Limpopo
Revolt will burst her own banks onto her own deserts
Revolt rumbles in the plunge of the Victorian Falls
and in the fall of the old tyrant from ‘Grace’ to grass
Revolt rumbles over the sleeping savanna shrubs:
the spider lilies and the dombeya find their roots
in graves of lost inspiration of war veterans
In graves revolt rumbles in the drunken roots of smoky clouds
that conflagrated the African skies and ate up its little suns
Revolt rumbles in the silenced voices of fallen comrades
Revolt rumbles in the beat of ngoma and ingungu
Revolt rumbles in the raspiness of freedom cries,
in frozen bullets burying their heads in comatose guns,
in the veneration of rock-strewn house of Zimbabwe,
in the slumbering of the Balancing Rocks of Chitungwiza
in the raging roots of the marula and the musasa
in the clenching of fists and the rustling of pens
in the drumbeats of justice
in the drum beats
in the drum:
Hail Zimbabwe!
Adipo Sidang 
(A trained philosopher, Adipo Sidang’ considers himself a Pan-African poet, playwright and award-winning novelist. He is the founder of AfroGovernance Initiative and Agora theatre, platforms that he uses for civic engagement on democracy and good governance. He is the author of “Parliament of Owls” collection of poems, a play under the same title and “A Boy Named Koko”, a novella
WE SHALL GET THERE
Behold Zimbabwe – Or A House, Stoned…
None knows the true hues of chameleons,
Except owner-creator and the chameleons
Have travelled, seen, houses of desolation
Forlon. Standing. At ease in abject solitude
At the pith of farms of sinewy, failed crops
Have drunk dew off petals of fallen hopes
Have travelled. Have hoped. Night to days
Faultering on stones, languorous ways too
Reading stars as hobby borne of boredoms
Yet. Today the night shines starry finalities
The brick house, half built on naked farms
Old farms of petals growing, yet famished!
The brick house, half built like dying crops
On the farm under solitude and, dejected?
The brick house overgrown by petals of red
The house of dreams half-baked in bricks…
The house. That house. House of nightmare
And dreams. Half expressed. Half, a house!
By it, lies the brick red grave. Of revolutions!
Risen now by taunts. Behold new Zimbabwe
Wanjohi Wa Makokha
(Wanjohi wa Makokha is the pen name of JKS Makokha, a Kenyan poet, critic and educator. He is based in the Department of Literature, Kenyatta University. He has written and edited several volumes on literary studies. Nest of Stones (2010) is his debut book of verse.)
REVOLUTIONS
Revolutions are not started
They are startled,
With actions that are rattled;
A stutter
Of one disgruntled
With cries muffled
Amid jittery, jugged nerves
And a host of reserves juggled:
Revolutions are part of a fabric all boggled,
Resolved, we are the revolution.
A shrill whimper
Evaporates from the icy caverns
Of an emasculated soul;
Short sniffs and snarls,
Dot the hollow interludes
Between talk and thought.
A sear boldly escapes the exploded mind
Calling for action, caution
The painting comes full circle:
A painting of horrors visited;
Horrors entertained;
Horrors needed not anymore –
Doused are the flames of inaction,
A fitting and valid reincarnation,
Of the much-vaunted revolution
-Richard Mbuthia
(Richard Mbuthia is a teacher, a poet, an editor and a motivational speaker. He studied English and Literature at Kenyatta University in Nairobi. He has great passion for poetry. To him, the rhythm and verve of poetry are ingredients of a great love story. The twenty six letters of the alphabet amaze him with their ability to foster change – their volatility and aptness cannot be gainsaid. )
SILENCED FOREVER!
Silenced forever
is the renowned satirical essayist and most acclaimed poet
since he became President’s Advisor on Literature and the Media!
Silenced forever
Is the outspoken Professor of Comparative Politics since he joined the regime he castigated for years on end!
Silenced forever
Is the critical playwright and most prolific novelist
Since he quit writing after he was allegedly accused of treason!
Silenced forever
Is the radical and foremost fighter for Gender equality
Since she was crowned Minister without Portfolio!
Silenced forever
is the iron-hearted Parliamentarian alias iron lady
since she was coaxed into taking up Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs!
Silenced forever
is the most vocal and cynical economic analyst
since he was nominated chairperson of Anti-corruption Commission!
Silenced forever
is the daring award winning investigative Journalist
since he was appointed head of State House Press Unit!
Silenced forever
is the senior Literature don and vociferous critic of president’s stand
since she took up government spokesperson-ship!
Silenced forever
is the charismatic lead protestor and paupers’ rights activist
since she was decorated with an accolade on Heroes day!
Silenced forever
Is the visionary columnist and strident public sensitizer on maladministration
Since he won State’s overseas PhD scholarship in Film Technology!
Silenced forever
Is the prominent opposition MP and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Since her acceptance to form the coalition government!
Silenced forever
is the no-nonsense Major General freshly turned politician
since he was inveigled to take up ambassadorship to I Don’t Know Where!
Anyhow, kindly bear with them
since they knew not how it’d cost our nation
and don’t ever take me seriously
since I don’t wish to be
Silenced forever!
First published in an Anthology of Contemporary African Poetry entitled A Thousand Voices Rising, 2014
Kariuki wa Nyamu–
a Kenyan poet, radio playwright, editor, translator, critic and educator, earned a Bachelor’s in English, Literature and Education from Makerere University, Uganda. His poems won The National Book Trust of Uganda (NABOTU) Literary Awards ‒ 2007 and in 2010, while in third-year, he won Makerere University Creative Writing in the Contemporary World Competition for the best collection of poems. He is published widely both in print and online, in anthologies such as A Thousand Voices Rising, Boda Boda Anthem and Other Poems, Best New African Poets 2015 Anthology, Experimental Writing: Volume , Africa Vs Latin America Anthology, Best New African Poets 2016 Anthology, Africanization versus Americanization: Volume 1, Africa Vs North America Anthology, Writing on Language, Culture and Development: Volume 1, Africa Vs Asia Anthology, The Mamba Journal for African Haiku: Issue IV, besides co-authoring a Children’s poetry and short story anthology titled When Children Dare to Dream. Kariuki, who also won the Babishai Niwe 2017 Haiku Prize, is presently pursuing a Master of Arts in Literature at Kenyatta University, Kenya
MY BIG HOUSE OF STONE
You are my own, Dzimbabwe,
I architected you
From scratch I built you
With my own earth coloured sweat
I made you wonder
I turned you into a great riddle
With these same black hands
I shall restore you to greatness,
Zimbabwe
Nganga Mbugua
(Mbugua is a poet, award-winning novelist and Editor of Nation on Saturday (Literary Magazine).
LIBERATE
(written for the dawn of new Zimbabwe)
I shall tell a tale about the shackles of oppression, Solid masses of impunity To which our feet were bound before being caged behind stronger than alloyed-steel dictatorship.
Sunk deep amid wild whirling waves of yet to be felt economic crisis. In this sea of sorrow;a composition of terrified tears and gallons of guilty greed.
We were sent to exile from our own motherland and struck nude of our democracy.
Keep silent… (wails). Those, those cries you hear are hymnal compositions of revolutionary realization.
Loud liberation calls we used to boldly recite.
The ground on which I now stand boasts of housing hostages of this hostility in the tale I’m telling. A rude riddle.
(sounds of riffles)
Worry not descendants, the beat of the gun and the pace of your heart beat fuse into a beat for a rhythm of this new choral I am composing about a new dawn.
Before the sun on the east Rise beyond those big hills, my sons, we shall see on the other side a buoyant life.
Before the light shades violently the demons of ethnical origin,
We shall sit and sing a dirge for this fall we prepare for.
Sons and daughters, before we set into this direction
Brace yourselves to encounter the enemy among the people.
For my old bones won’t fight anymore.
But these hands will on this scroll
Write of your Victory when you return
To take this naive hermit
Back home
And burry the remains of my grey hair
In that same land my ancestry lies.
Jojji Kaka- 
( Oluoch George Patrick, going by the pseudonym ‘jojji kaka’ is a young Kenyan poet who believes in the power of writing to diffuse positive influence to the greater mass.)
NB- to all these who are not included here ,it means your poems came after the 18th of November and they will be included in the next journals.
