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    LITERATURE & ANALYSES

    Tobbako

    A poetic protest against oppression, consumerism and manipulation, urging individuals to resist the allure of destructive habits and instead fight for freedom.

    By: Maurice Gonsia III

    06 Dec, 2024

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    I will not buy your tobacco
    I won't buy your tobacco
    I will not let you sink my boat
    I won't let you sing my thoughts;
    Sing to free me, plead to free me.

    Love me like Cupid, desire so stupid
    Your tongue upon a boot it's leaning
    Justice, a Benz, pimping, so said
    Desire not to bend to pick the peanuts, you're not dense.
    That's hope on a thread and like Milton
    It's dead.

    I won't buy your tobacco
    To choke me on nicotine
    you would rather call me an empty tin
    because I choose to drag the capitalist.

    Community, society, hear ye!
    I call upon you to heal me,
    Not to hail me
    like the capitalist;
    I am praying for your naivety
    Suffocating free thought,
    selling you your freedom
    So do not buy tobacco
    Do not say mpako.

    I will not buy your tobacco
    It's a charm of free doom
    I won't buy your tobacco
    For a chance of freedom
    We cannot laugh and let it go
    Where anyway?!
    When the roads are filled with portholes,
    And the bridges want to let go
    Like the patients in Mulago.

    Tobakko, I dare you!
    Sell not your freedom for free doom
    Lose your soul so that you do feel not the portholes.
    Or breathe in the dust or soot
    On your suit, wear not the oppression symbol
    Clap not the cymbals when you celebrate your freedom

    I hope free air is free
    For them to feel free and breathe
    Not soot or dust, but peace
    Let them rejoice for justice served
    And their children, forever satisfied,
    Educated, patriotic, but not for the stars.

    Free the air, rebuke the heir
    May democracy burn like a flare on a street fair
    May I pay my fare to you without fear,
    Sleep in tranquillity, wake to equity
    Weigh my sacrifices with your services
    And belch satisfactorily.

    Well, I did not buy your tobacco
    So I have my freedom.
    I beg to speak, so be it if I bleed
    We won't plead or fight
    for words are cheap, and war is but delight
    So, we won't buy your tobacco
    For a chance to chant freedom.

    -thehandwritten-

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