Song of the Big Bull
By Majekodunmi Ebhohon
BROTHER,
have you seen
the Big Bull
of the West?
He stands
on the anthill
and bellows!
He beats
his chest
like the gorilla
in the forest.
“This neighbour’s compound
is my compound!”
he screams.
“This neighbour’s cattle
are my cattle!”
Look at his hands!
Fat, soft hands
that never held the hoe,
Fingers that never felt
the rough handle
of the axe.
Yet he points
to the garden
he did not dig,
He points
to the harvest
he did not sow.
“Bring the baskets!”
he barks.
“Fill my calabash
with the neighbour’s
sweat!”
Is this how
a Chief behaves?
Does the sun fall
because the cock
refuses to crow?
Does the field
belong to the locust
because it owns a tooth?
He calls
his clansmen,
The ones
with the cold eyes,
The ones
with the stiff necks.
“Sit!”
he commands.
“Feast!”
He breaks
the stool of the owner
And plants
his heavy buttocks
on the fragments.
He says he comes
to save the village
from the burning hut,
But he carries a torch
in his left hand!
He says he comes
to chase away the thief,
But look!
the thief’s sandals
in his legs!
What sort of medicine man
cures the headache
by cutting off the head?
What sort of father
protects the child
by eating the child’s supper?
He lusts
for the black milk
of the earth.
He sniffs the ground
like a starving hyena.
The thick,
black blood!
He wants to suck it
until the veins
are dry.
He is the glutton
who eats the egg
and the hen.
He is the Stranger
who swallows the host,
Wiping his mouth
with the hem
of a stolen robe!
But wait!
Do not weep, Brother!
Do not fear
the fat belly!
For the taboo food
does not sleep
in the stomach
of the thief!
The stolen goat
will wake up
in his bowels!
The black milk
will turn to sizzling
oil in his throat!
Watch him!
The greed will swell
like a dead dog
floating on the river.
He will cough!
He will choke!
He will vomit
the land
he tried to swallow!
He will
cough up the gold!
He will
cough up the silver!
He will
cough up
his own
twisting intestines
on the clean earth
he dared to steal!
* Ebhohon, a Nigerian poet and playwright, author of The Great Delusion, won ANA Prize for Drama, 2025
