The Gourd of Friendship

Where is the curiosity we’ve lost in discovery ?

Where is the discovery we’ve lost in knowledge ?

Where is the knowledge we’ve lost in communication ?

Where is the communication we’ve lost in mass media ?

Where is the message we’ve lost in the medium ?

And where is the community we’ve lost in all these ?

It is easy to go to the moon :

There, there are no people.

It is easier to count the stars :

They will not complain.

But the road to your neighbour’s heart –

Who has surveyed it ?

The formula to your brother’s head –

Who has devised it ?

The gourd that doesn’t spill friendship-

In whose garden has it ever grown ?

You never know despair

Until you’ve lost hope;

You never know your aspiration

Until you’ve seen others’ disillusionment.

Peace resides in the hearts of men

Not in conference tables and delegates’ signatures

True friendship never dies-

It grows stronger the more it is tested.

Richard Ntiru (Uganda)

edited by Wole Soyinka

African Writers Serie

(Heinemann)