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.