Sallay Kama Sallay*
By Moses Kainwo, Freetown, Sierra Leone
Sallay kama sallay!
Bosway! Bosway!
Sallay kama sallay!
Bosway! Bosway!
Sallay kama sallay!
Bosway! Bosway!
Palm fronds in the sun
Have catapulted the earth dirt into the eyes,
In Wilkinson Road—in broad daylight:
As if to construct anger and rage
In slow-moving cars,
In Wilkinson Road—in broad daylight!
But no!
There is beauty in the horizon
Shining like sea in the road,
Wilkinson Road—in the year of jubilee:
And the blast of laughter from old cars
Will level with speed
The mountain of wastepaper journals
Flying out of car windows,
In Wilkinson Road—a road changing direction by the hour:
The Chinese gift of road jigsaws
*Sallay Kama Sallay: Mende rendition of the English ‘Challenge, come on, challenge; and the response is Bosway, Bosway, which means ‘both ways, both ways’—in the face of a great task the chorus of this pronouncement favours success or a breakthrough.
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