Written piece
Osu Castle
Dennis Boateng
Ghana
About this piece
Osu Castle doesn’t let you romanticize anything. This poem doesn’t try to. It’s about what connects the living to the ones who never made it home. -Dennis(kesse.writes)
It was a terrible discovery
Beyond the Gold Coast
Where human eyes only saw horizontal lines
In a boat with nothing but dust
The coast allowed passage only with hope
But the boat betrayed it
Bringing a dark cloud which not only stained the land but poisoned everything it touched
A land of great fortune swallowed into the belly of oppression
With the kind that waved and gave smiles like family
Something made familiar by the design of a mask
a place of no return
Where the echoes of the African root are heard in the hearts of the vines
Connected in spirit and in mind
Even in darkness the African star refused to die
Regardless of the chains that kept us trapped we were free from the voices in the shadows
Those who exchanged our dreams with nightmares
The roots never forget
The history is passed down to every descendant
Just like the mustard seed a little faith becomes a giant tree
Born from the soil that made the African child
Perfected by the master artist
And given the hope of freedom forever