Who can take his place? None.
As if she did not have enough pains
as if her mother had not died before
and her children all for tusks... ivory.
How I wish that Mountain Bull had been
found, found alive
How I know he was found dead, how I know
The elephant that disturbed but had a mind to share
How I wish
How I wish if you had been found dead at 46 you would
have had your tusks on
Your six tonnes lay there and no tusks, Mountain Bull
You and I have had our bad times but the worst has
come for you Oh, Mountain Bull
Your Exodus begins my song of pain, the book of books
for your story too must be heard Mountain Bull of Mt. Kenya
http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Elephant-that-symbolised-Kenya-wildlife-conservation/-/1056/2318778/-/i51e9r/-/index.html
How shall we conserve, whom shall we conserve
Who can play reserve in your place?
She, the elephant died before...
As if she did not have enough pains
as if her mother had not died before
and her children all for tusks... ivory.
How I wish that Mountain Bull had been
found, found alive
How I know he was found dead, how I know
The elephant that disturbed but had a mind to share
How I wish
How I wish if you had been found dead at 46 you would
have had your tusks on
Your six tonnes lay there and no tusks, Mountain Bull
You and I have had our bad times but the worst has
come for you Oh, Mountain Bull
Your Exodus begins my song of pain, the book of books
for your story too must be heard Mountain Bull of Mt. Kenya
http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Elephant-that-symbolised-Kenya-wildlife-conservation/-/1056/2318778/-/i51e9r/-/index.html
How shall we conserve, whom shall we conserve
Who can play reserve in your place?
She, the elephant died before...
I the elephant have died again
She the elephant that did not resurrect, died again
She the elephant that did not resurrect, died again
and again as presidents talk about mini skirts
for Afrika and forget the mini shirts that steal
with only skin on. I saw no girl
come to her, our dead elephant but only men
with knives of fear and no tears for her rear
Don't help the elephant carry her tusks, do you hear?
they never heard that I the elephant
never gets tired of carrying my own tusks
my own sweet burdens they are, not your ivory
so greedy you, since you started
building houses that rivaled my size
and became sky scrapers forgetting their African tongues
had no name for State Houses,
had no name for State Houses,
An elephant never tires of carrying its own tusks did you not hear?
Her children have been left alone
no elephant mother stares with two slowing eyes
they have pushed her into the bush and taken her big
thighs leaving them one upon the other, a people
so afraid and in hatred of their Mother Tongue
For mother
For mother
she is this elephant and memory she never borrows but
they want her only to remember her death of pain
We cannot bear her sorrow so strong: An antelope is not big enough to carry the tusks an elephant bears...
Who will hide her precious ivory where greed has grown wings and feet?
Politicians will not protect me when I am peaceful on the land
they like to be big and to be big they make war and kill us
They like to swat us like flies and to be in power they take ours
They like to be big like my tail so that nobody can catch their deeds. They may call me a wall like the third man of Hindustan
They may even pretend am a fan and that all I am different things
for me but one fact is real they only know me money and none of
them weep my cause as they ride in jumbos free and I.. count my votes in vain
"An elephant does not die from one broken rib" It dies
when lawmakers are persistent lawbreakers
They say that their brains are big and that rationality is theirs
but I remember so many times the thoughts of pain and wonder
When an elephant kills a rat is not a hero we say, what heroism is
is yours when all you do is aim and pierce taking my ivory to land
distant? It is your children you starve when you kill me, what wisdom is there in that?
I am pregnant for twenty two months and I do not bring my child to you who steals my life for the sake of ivory. I stay where I belong I do not come to your towers, why then do you come to mine, hiding behind trees, trapping and shooting me and taking my
tusks from me and for me as if I asked for help. I still have my memory it is you who loses yours. Why do you think I should not multiply when you are going everywhere in this world?
Have you heard that I flew to space to look for a new place?
Have you seen me crossing rivers and deserts to take your parts
Have you heard that I flew to space to look for a new place?
Have you seen me crossing rivers and deserts to take your parts
to other lands? What have I done to kill your conscience of nature
I the elephant who knows what value an ant has for none other
can scratch my hooves or eat the generous droppings of green kilos
I give back even after I eat?
I allow the nightbird to perch on me so she can see far and keep me safe when I doze in the heat of the night and the afternoon stillness of the day waiting for night. Watch out for me, watch out for me alive. Feed your hungry and remove all those poachers from my way. I am the keeper of every park and jungle and without me rocks will cry and I never forgetting cry at every spot of death and robbery of my tusks.
An elephant is never burdened by its own tusks why do you take mine? You should know my dung better. Think about my dung. Worry about my dung the home of many seeds I scatter. Think how I make food for others and even if I eat trees, I plant seeds galore. Think me and think you who robs my tusks only to dry them. I have them to keep and you can wait until I die after I spread my seeds for the generations that have loaned you this land for now. Think many African proverbs about me the elephant. I cry not only for myself.
When two elephants fight, since you fight me you pretend to be elephant, it is the grass that suffers. You injure me, I lie there dying and so many trees die with me, and there goes your rainfall.
Generations suffer dryness when you kill me. I have my role to play, play yours with me. You just can never seem to know and acknowledge. You can find me in the desert following water and keeping people watered. I tell you, you have no idea how connected I am to your gas, oil and even, computers! Think my minerals. Think why the best and most important are found in the stomach of this land so vast and others. Think. Just think.
And let live
When two elephants fight, since you fight me you pretend to be elephant, it is the grass that suffers. You injure me, I lie there dying and so many trees die with me, and there goes your rainfall.
Generations suffer dryness when you kill me. I have my role to play, play yours with me. You just can never seem to know and acknowledge. You can find me in the desert following water and keeping people watered. I tell you, you have no idea how connected I am to your gas, oil and even, computers! Think my minerals. Think why the best and most important are found in the stomach of this land so vast and others. Think. Just think.
And let live
