Spoken Word

Nana Asaase

For the duration of the project, renowned performance poet Nana Asaase (based in Accra, Ghana), contributed his creative responses to letters written by Ignatius Sancho, and some other related pieces of literary and historical content. Scroll down the page to read all of the poems.
Asaase’s creations were performed in the 16th and 17th November 2017 showcase performances at Bernie Grant Arts Centre.

Original Poems written for Ignatius Inspires by Nana Asaase

Life of Colours-Sancho Ignites
Communion of Lies
Sternly to the Day; Gently to the Earth
INTOXICATED MIRRORS-LONDON ON FIRE
EPHIPHANIA

LIFE OF COLOURS-SANCHO IGNITES
written by Nana Asaase for Ignatius Inspires

Born with pigment of earth and truth
Torn from the centre, a diamond in the rough
Native fires brimming in your heart to light the world
Home is a mystery and everywhere is here.

I am a son of promise
Orphaned of father’s name and of mother’s love
A citizen of the world
Wafted of the seas and reeking of holy water
Delivered pure to the whims of the world
I, the fiery Sancho, consumed the tags
Of colour and race and creed and negro
Smoking the myths across time unborn
Emerging taller at the exits of life.

Do not point a left finger at my wounds
I faltered at the altars like a man of dreams
My flaws and how I lived them
Preserve my deeds in the wombs of time and memory
The part well played in this long-short script of life.

Verbs, sound, colour, rhythm, charm, pulse
My music, my heartbeat
My art feasts of the world on stage
Human as none unusual.

My life is poured out as many colours onto the canvas of your minds
Send an epitaph on the wings of the wind
Save my name to be written in the world’s many tongues.

COMMUNION OF LIES
written by Nana Asaase for Ignatius Inspires

This communion of lies has scalded our souls
We stand accused of burning home and saving the shame for wine
The Pater Noster broke the chains of kin
With holy smokes of conquest leaving mothers widowed.

You dare to point at the nude shanks of hope you whipped sour
Pious! Indeed! Ridiculous! Men of the cloth staining the memory of Christ
‘Love thy neighbor as thyself’ with a twist of Technicolor
Save it! Save the Messiah’s name from the stain of greed
Keep the Sabbath pure from your love of mead
For gold you make our rivers bleed…Save it!

A man can only be as true as his mothersong
Ours was the harmless bond of ‘nn)boa’
Till your senseless halleluyahs ruined the chorus
Breaking the backs of our regal wombs.

Now we are not the brother’s keeper
We work hard to earn enough to return your own coin
With our seared conscience floating the deep seas of the worlds
We have learnt well, perhaps too well to your displeasure
But a student is never greater than his master
Nor a servant better than his master
We have learnt well enough to attain your standards of civilization.

Lend us wings to fly to redemption
Lend us wings to scale this field of roses
This communion of lies
Has ended with you where it began.

STERNLY TO THE DAY; GENTLY TO THE EARTH
written by Nana Asaase for Ignatius Inspires

Our tongues are hung on the shoulders of the world
To foment disaffection with slavery and its concomitant ills
Our tongues are heavy with prayers and conscience from the corners of humanity
Brotherhood is not tied to the womb of which we all even have a common.

I beseech thee my brother, to speak sternly to the day
Remind him of the night without which he is a mist
Tell the world of how the stars bide their time so the sun can strut about
Of how we live in queues long after we are gone.

My brother Sancho benevolent in blood and wit
My kinsman most stern to the oppressors of the brethren
Grief is eloquent as your keen eyes note
None, none is fit to drape his ego round another’s candle of life.

We owe our graces to the service of the oppressed
Ten miles to Mecca to pray the powers that see to heal these scars
Forever stitched on the wombs of the earth in stiff tyranny
Between us, save books and our far-flying names on the edges of life to buy freedom.

Upon his dear heart and many more down the ages
Let us lay this sternly to the world and gently to the earth:
‘Tis the fortune of war which has put the whip into our hands now-
Where it may be hereafter, heaven knows…’
To the memory of Toby let us keep this trim
Adieu, slavery, God forbid you round the world and another half.

INTOXICATED MIRRORS-LONDON ON FIRE
written by Nana Asaase for Ignatius Inspires

FROM THIS PERCH OF OBLIVION
THE WALLS OF SANITY CRUMBLE ALL AROUND MY EYES
THE BOAST OF CIVILISATION BENDS A KNEE
THIS WORLD IS CLOSING IN.

THE HORSES OF CONSCIENCE GALLOP AMOK
CHARGING THE STREETS OF LIGHT WITH DARKNESS AND WITH FIRE
BINDING THE LORDS OF THE STREETS IN A FRENZY OF SENSELESS UNITY
AGAINST THEIR VERY FRAGILE SHELLS OF HOME.

THE MYSTERY OF THIS EVIL MASTERY
HAS ALWAYS BEEN THIS PRACTICE OF DISPLACED CREAM
LOFTY HEADS AND RUGGED BOTTOMS
WRITING THE LAWS OF GIN AND POWER
OF THE GUNS AND OF PRAYER.

LONDON, GLORIOUS CAPITAL OF THE WORLD
DOWN IN THE PITS OF REFRACTED CONFLICTS
OF FAITH AND THE DAZED MASSES AND POWER
STUCK IN THE GREEDY THROATS OF SECURE CHAMBERS.

THE SPIRITS IN US HAVE CAUGHT FIRE
INCENSED TO VEHEMENCE BY UNGUIDED PERCEPTIONS
LEAVING HALLELUYAHS IMPOTENT TO REDEEM OUR SOULS
DRAWING THE SWORDS OF THE LAW TO COLOUR OUR STREETS WITH BLOOD.

BUT MAY THESE RAINS SOBER THEM OUT
TO THE UNITY OF ESTRANGED KIN
LONDON SHALL RISE FROM THE ASHES
OF THE BROKEN WALLS AND BROKEN JAILS

YET FOR WANT OF ROOM-
THE REMAINDER IN OUR NEXT.

EPHIPHANIA
written by Nana Asaase for Ignatius Inspires

Upon these cheeks of earth
The bushes of history gained traction
Leaving stains of native stories on my face.

Sancho at last, unveiled canvas
He is here to Bath, never to wipe
The stripes of greatness ceded to freedom.

These epiphanic moments when we recognise him
In lines and spaces of tint and shade
Of black and white and colour and truth.

On which ever day he was born
We baptised his subtle strength
And gained a totem of power
Sharing the stereotypes of skin.

Take a bath and let be Sancho.

Remember, Asaase’s new creations will also be performed in the showcase performances at Bernie Grant Arts Centre.