Seun Shote as Ato. Photo: Neill Libbert
Nana: My spirit Mother ought to have come for me earlier,
Now what shall I tell them who are gone? The daughter
of slaves who comes from the white man’s land.
Someone should advise me on how to tell my story.
Someone should lend me a tongue
Light enough with which to tell
My Royal Dead
That one of their stock
Has gone away and brought to their sacred precincts
The Wayfarer! ...
Even when the Unmentionable
Came and carried off the children of the house
In shoals like fish,
Nana Kum kept his feet steadfast on the ground
And refused to let any of his nephews
Take a wife from a doubtful stock.
