The Rising Yellow Sun (Biafra Poem)

Abas Obot 1994 (Akwa Ibom State)



THE RISING YELLOW SUN
We all saw the lousy fearful storm,
Up the sky of our newborn town,
Everyone thought it’s a summer’s dawn,
Where there couldn’t be heavy rain nor storm;

We closed our ears to the weeping sky,
Even when the cloud was right in our eyes,
The suffering sky kept yelling in pain,
But all its calls were left in vain;

The cloud was just above us all,
East and South to West and North,
The West didn’t care because it’s against the east,
No one knew we would soon lose our peace;

The darkness reached its thickest depth,
The northern sky had turned to red,
The Eastern soil mourned its thousand loss,
The onset of the great exodus;

Back to the East everyone cried,
What a journey of thousand miles,
Some on feet both day and night,
Losing every sense of hope and smile;

The South East begged for a glimpse of light,
South South joined in awful cry,
Everyone needed a rising sun,
To bring the hope that had just gone;

Then rose a rising yellow sun,
From the shore of the roaring sea,
Everyone knew it’s too bloody deep,
But it’s light was enough that all could see;

Amidst the celebration of the new sunrise,
The day was still as dark as night,
A mix of light and darkness strife,
The roaring sea reached its highest tide;

A controversial friendship of North and West,
To deem the light of the rising sun,
The whole world watched the brutal game,
The media streamed the aweful scene;

Millions of lives both young and old,
Forced to face the shameful woe,
Bloodshed and famine showered like rain,
Millions forced to die in pain;

The stormy cloud had taken its rest,
May be waiting for another lucky day,
No victor no vanquish was all they claimed,
But that for sure wouldn’t raise the dead;

“Unity and peace” was all they hailed,
What an illusory unity of heaven and hell?
Would East and North really become friends?
That’s a story for another day;

Yes, we’ve all claimed to have won the game,
Forgetting the extreme loss and aimless pain,
The million ghosts still haunt to and fro,
Now the fate of our town is still unknown;

The rising yellow sun was forced to set,
But its bloodstain still shows its trail,
Its red-yellow light may not soon get set,
But it may forever be our nightmare;

Oh, you Rising Yellow Sun hear me now,
When shall thy true light come to stay,
That the souls of thy slain may find their rests,
Perhaps this thy wrath may have an end?

When shall thy children come back home,
From where they were scattered long ago,
When shall the great hope come to live,
So thy glory might fill the sky?
©️Abas Obot


The Rising Yellow Sun by Abas Obot is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://www.inspiredscoop.com/2022/03/the-rising-yellow-sun.html.

About this poem

Nigeria had independence On October 1, 1960 from the British. At the early years of the independence the country was ruled by corrupt leaders who encouraged nepotism in the country. This bad leadership led to a bloody coup that took place in 1966 claiming the lives of several Nigerian elites. Being a country of over 500 ethnic groups and over 300 languages, the Nigerian people are mainly categorized under three major ethnic groups which includes The Hausa/Fulani )in the North, The Yoruba (In the West) and the Igbos (in the east). Majority of those who took part in the 1966 coup were Igbos even when it was a coup planned by people of diffently ethnicities. This led to speculations that led to the coup been labelled "Igbo coup" by the North and West. Northern Nigeria (Hausa/Fulani) planned a retaliatory coup that killed the then head of State, Gen. Aguyi Ironsi who was an Igbo followed by the massacre of over 30,000 Igbos in Northern Nigeria. After a series of events, Eastern Nigeria declared itself as an independent state from Nigeria (The Republic of Biafra). The then Nigerian head of state Gen. Gowon declared war against Biafra. Backed by different countries including the UK, the war led to the death of over 5 million Biafrans mostly children by hunger in what is until this day one of the worst genocide in history. One can easily see the horror of the event by googling "The Biafran war" and viewing the images. After the war war which began from 1967 to 1969, the Nigerian government declared "No Victor no vanguish" to calm the rage of the defeated Biafra. Until this day, Nigeria had never been the same again. There is ethnic divisions, hatred, bitterness, destruction and bloodshed mostly connected with the wars that happened years ago. Until this day the hatred for the Igbos had increased and year by year the young ones rise rise up to restore the Republic of Biafra and get killed by the Nigerian government in the process. The killings had continued and there is not glimpse of hope that the defunct Biafra would give up to their agitation. An example is Massi Namdi Kanu, A Nigerian-British citizen, the leader of the proscribed indigenous people of Biafra (IPOB) and CEO of Radio Biafra who is currently in the Nigerian detention facility and undergoing trial for treasonable felony, terrorism and other serious charges. The Rising Yellow is dedicated to the Biafra war and how it had haunted my country Nigeria even to this day. The Biafran flag which as a half rising sun had featured in several international books, novels and movies. Examples are "Half of a Yellow Sun" by the International writer, Chimamanda Adichie and "There was a Country" by Chinua Achebe, the writer of Things Fall Apart, Arrow of God etc. 

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Written on August 27, 2021

Submitted by Abasdgreat on August 30, 2021

Modified by Abasdgreat on April 01, 2022

2:54 min read
130

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABXCB DEFF GXHX XIXX JXKX KDAC ALXL EKXJ MANX XOFF MPXI XXXP NFOX QXQX XPXX XOXDH XG
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 2,790
Words 582
Stanzas 17
Stanza Lengths 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 2

Abas Obot

Abasiama Obot (Abas Obot) whose actual name is Abasiama John AkpanObot is a Nigerian, a scientist, a motivational speaker, poet, writer and song writer. He is a graduate of Microbiology from the University of Uyo, Nigeria, member Chartered Institute for Environment Health and Safety and Global Outreach member of the American Society for Microbiology. He has great passion in writing articles, stories, poems, songs and fictional works especially associated with the contemporary issues in the society. He had made several publications such as "Codigestion of Oryza sativa Husks and Musa paradisiaca Peels for the Production of Biogas" and "Application of Psychrophilic Enzymes in Biotechnology", both accessible via http://afribary.com/authors/abasiama-akpan; several poems like The Rising Yellow Sun among others. You can follow him on Facebook via https://www.facebook.com/TheInspiredQuotesandPoetry/ or blog http://abasdgreat.blogspot.com more…

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