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Sierra Leonean writer, Elizabeth A. Kamara’s poem titled, “New Tongue” has been added into the West African Examination Council (WAEC) syllabus.
The poem was selected by WAEC to be studied for the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
Elizabeth L. A Kamara is an educator, writer and poet. She is the second child of Mr. John M.Kamanda (now deceased) and Mrs. Hassanatu R. Kamanda. She grew up in the east end of Freetown and attended the Holy Trinity Primary School, Annie Walsh Memorial School and Fourah Bay College. She is the Former Head of English Unit, Department of Language Studies at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone and lecturer of Literature in English in the aforementioned department. She has published three collections of poems and some of her poems have been translated into Spanish and Greek. She has contributed to national and international publications including the prestigious African Literature Today, Leoneanthology, In the Belly of the Lion and Revista Prometheo.
She has participated in several conferences and festivals including the African Literature Association Conference, Medellin International Poetry Festival and Patras World Festival. She is among the handful of Sierra Leonean women who have published poetry collections and has consistently supported other writers by writing several introductions, forewords and endorsements for them.
Kamara is a member of African Literature Association, Sierra Leone Writers Guild, World Poetry Movement, Conservation Society of Sierra Leone and Founder of the Poetry Reading Club – FBC. She was the Media Team Coordinator, National Book Fair (Sierra Leone) and often serves as a consultant for certain organizations. She was recently honoured with the award of Lecturer of the Year for FBC, for the 2021/22 academic year. She currently holds an executive position in the Academic Staff Association, FBC, USL.
Read her poem, “New Tongue” below:
They speak in a new tongue
And dance new dances Minds battered into new modes and shapes
Their eyes revel in the wonder of the new
Embraced and bound to hearts with impregnable chains The old songs as disregarded dreams
Remnants of a past.
Ties of family and friendship
Loosened, broken, burnt The ashes strewn into the bottomless sea
As fishes swim by Careless of the loss
Mindful of where they dare
A new generation Careless of bonds
Of family
Of tradition
Of heritage
They care not
Nor revere the old
Their minds turn inwards
Only inwards
Like the insides of clothes That marry the bodies of mankind
No room for elders
No,
Not even on the edge of their minds
Their ears blocked to the old tongue
And ways of doing things
Glorying in their new newness of a borrowed tongue and culture
Every man
For himself
By himself Of himself
A strange coldness descending like snow covered mountain
Or like bathing at the back of the house On a rainy July day
The gusts of wind falling trees Carting roofs away
Tugging skirts
And swirling debris in the air
Their borrowed shoes dance
Their borrowed minds parted the red sea long ago
They hang the last lock on their culture And glide into the future
Without a backward glance.
