April Is National Poetry Month!
HAIL! UNITED STATES OF AFRICA!
MARCUS GARVEY
Hail! United States of Africa-free!
Hail! Motherland most
bright, divinely fair!
State in perfect sisterhood united,
Born
of truth; mighty thou shalt ever be.
Hail! Sweet land of our father's noble kin!
Let joy within thy
bounds be ever known;
Friend of the wandering poor, and
helpless, thou,
Light to all, such as freedom's reigns within.
From Liberia's peaceful western coast
To the foaming Cape at the
southern end,
There's but one law and sentiment sublime,
One
flag, and its emblem of which we boast.
The Nigeria’s are all united now,
Sierra Leone and the Gold
Coast, too.
Gambia, Senegal, not divided,
But in one union
happily bow.
The treason of the centuries is dead,
All alien whites are
forever gone;
The glad home of Sheba is once more free,
As
o'er the world the black n-tan raised his head.
Bechuanaland, a State with Kenya,
Members of the Federal Union
grand,
Send their greetings to sister Zanzibar,
And so does
laughing Tanganyika.
Over in Grand Mother Mozambique,
The pretty Union Flag floats in
the air,
She is sister to good Somaliland,
Smiling with the
children of Dahomey.
Three lusty cheers for old Basutoland,
Timbuctoo, Tunis and
Algeria,
Uganda, Kamerun, all together
Are in the Union
with Nyasaland.
We waited long for fiery Morocco,
Now with Guinea and Togo she
has come,
All free and equal in the sisterhood,
Like Swazi,
Zululand and the Congo.
There is no state left out of the Union-
The East, West, North,
South, including Central,
Are in the nation, strong
forever,
Over blacks in glorious dominion.
Hail! United States of Africa-free!
Country of the brave black
man's liberty;
State of greater nationhood thou hast won,
A
new life for the race is just begun.
1927
