There are places we can’t imagine
on the edge of the Sahara Desert lays the sacred Timbuktu/
a place we imagine but can’t remember/
That’s the thing about Mali, it’s eternal and omnipresent/
The land of God herself/
There are places we can’t imagine/
Like where Mansa Musa laid his spirit for peace/
you know?
that place/
between the gold dust and the slaves/
In retrospect/
Mansa Musa’s sadness is a space we can’t imagine/
and that’s why/
we can’t remember Timbuktu/
we can’t remember how the manuscripts traveled around the Mediterranean and the African seas/
We can’t remember how manuscript 1998 landed in the Ottoman Empire/
Goodness Gracious/
Mansa Musa’s mother must have been a mermaid/
because how else/
how else/
did her womb build Mali?
Mmangwedi is a multidisciplinary poet, writer, scholar and researcher.