By Cherno Gaye
SOME MEN
When you speak for your fellow man, he will judge you
When you speak for God men will ignore you
When you speak the truth, they will tell their friends ‘’he is but a self-righteous fool and our gift to him is the wisdom of deaf ears”
When you speak for freedom, men of power will fear you because power is a child of tyranny and tyranny is the insecure bully hitting you in the head with ideas, he hopes will keep you on your knees while he feeds lies to his monstrous ego
That is why when you march on the streets with banners and demand for your freedom, tyranny will march against you and demand for your life
Like Martin, Malcolm, and Nelson
Solo Sandeng paid that price
Because few men understand that evil men are not evil men until they can bend every man to their will and most men will bend at the will of corrupt power but some men love freedom more than they fear death
Some men understand that sacrifice is sometimes a one-way ticket and they will still get on that flight
Some men will murder dishonesty in cold blood, pack him in a box, bury him in a cave and proudly kiss the barrel of the executioner’s gun because they would rather sleep six feet below sea level than tell the lies that make leaders into monsters
Some men are the nightmares that keep tyrants awake in their beds because all it takes to burn down a kingdom of lies is one honest man willing to die for the truth
Some men have hope
Some men dare to dream
And maybe hope is nothing but a loan we owe to a man named tomorrow who lives in a place called the future but his promise
His promise is the legend that gives meaning to human life
And what is life without meaning?
What is life without hope?
Solo died because in a country of more than two million people, one lie grew so big that good men had to trade their honour for breadcrumbs
He died because we had remained quiet for so long, we had forgotten the taste of liberty and the feeling of freedom
He died because a baby monster came into our house and we kept him in a room, fed him and raised him without question, so when he grew up and started killing, we had forgotten we had the right to say no
Solo died because we killed a part of ourselves every time we voted for that monster, every time we praised him, every time we lied against our countrymen for him, every time we changed the law for him, every time we broke the law for him and all the times, we remained silent while he was violating the rights of our people
Solo died so that you could be free, but are you?
He died so that someone like me can recite a poem like this
Because few men understand that evil men are not evil men until they can bend every man to their will and most men will bend at the will of corrupt power but some men love freedom more than they fear death
Some men will murder dishonesty in cold blood, pack him in a box, bury him in a cave and proudly kiss the barrel of the executioner’s gun because they would rather sleep six feet below sea level than tell the lies that turned leaders into monsters
Some men are the nightmares that keep tyrants awake in their beds because all it takes to burn down a kingdom of lies is one honest man willing to die for the truth
So, are you most men, or are you some men??
Because Solo was one of them
Solo died so that you can be free and no one here is free
Rest in peace.
