Some days I wake up hopeless and despondent,
Lacking the clinical drive and medical zeal to carry on
Toiling and meandering in health systems inadequate
I know fully well many are archaic
But today I choose hope and not despair,
Having decided to choose hope and not despair
Challenges galore I arise and palpate with hope
And Africa’s sun rises nevertheless
With its people carving a living from her earth
With singing birds soothing us from their nests
Africa’s hope abounds even as we rest
And her bustle and hustle make me smile as I wait.
You need to make a choice on how you react
When mothers still die, while giving life
When many newborns don’t hope of surviving a score
When a mosquito bite may handover a death sentence
When millions with enlarged prostates await an op longer than a harvest can be found
When girth size does not equate to wealth
When ER violence and trauma is order of the day
It is chaos I know but I choose to hope and not despair,
In the darkness of the night while counting Africa’s woes
Conflict on the streets and villages ravaged by war
A blame travels far to hapless leaders and institutions
An easy scoff at their shortsightedness till I gaze at my myopia
Then I am awoke – as I realize that I am equally responsible
Called to resilience and toil for my continent’s hope
Choosing hope becomes my only choice,
My eyes may look weary, but my heart doesn’t despair
Left, east and west, I see Africa’s pride everywhere
Medics yearning to practice medicine in their own continent
Yet hamstrung by lack, the albatross on our necks
And dearth of personnel mirrors premature deaths
Where have they gone I ask-
Her medics hailing from Jomo Kenyatta or Makerere Medical School
Africa’s registrars crossed seas from Parirenyatwa Hospital’s corridors of hope
The now cardiologists trained in Muhimili hospital in the shores of Tanganyika
Brainy clinicians from Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital holding scepters of hope,
Even from these souls whose umbilical cells are here
I have stopped complaining
Even when many of your hospitals are without hope
I don’t despair
For it is in these corridors that Africa’s hope in health will rise
I gaze in hope at what Africa has created,
I choose hope convinced my toil not vain
For in my veins the African blood flows and hops
Working with doctors who race these corridors at night
Their innovative spirit amidst so little
Their resilience to continue the Hippocratic vow
Their sacrifice to render a basic human right
Their belief that we shall conquer
Makes me choose to hope and not despair,
From Africa’s belly a generation is rising
The millennials, the Y generation, and the post-COVID generation we name it
Together we commit with our hands and build with our hearts
With smart brains making medicines to heal this sick world
With resilience showing how medicine ought to be
With our never die spirit Africa shall rise
And we concur that this continent’s health will be great,
Awaken the doctor in me OH my continent
Bring to life your Hippocratic Oath or medic
Build alliances and innovate health care entrepreneur
Build legacies to last published Professor
Empathize with your brothers you intensivist
See even as I grow old in age I still hope
And I chose her again instead of despair
For within me, among us – with conjoined efforts – Africa’s potential we unleash.
By Samukeliso Dube, April 2020
