The book
The Watchman of Africa
Poems on Africa’s politics and people, by Romeo Zulu. First published 2021. Poetry winner, Phoenix Publishing Book Awards 2022.
Paperback and a new ebook edition coming. The Kindle edition is the first edition, 2023.
What it is about
The book opens with a page of questions: why Africa is shaped like a question mark, who gave her that name, why she is poor with minerals in the ground, why her leaders want to die in power, why Africans need a visa to visit each other. The poems that follow answer back. Some are political: independence as a fallacy, power in the wrong hands, politics as a game of numbers, the loans that have replaced the missionaries. Some are history that was not taught: the Moors, Yasuke the Black Samurai, Timbuktu, Mansa Musa, the warrior queens Amina, Nzinga, Yaa Asantewaa and Amanirenas. Some are closer to home: an African woman’s diary, a war veteran’s song, a village boy’s ambitions, the prosperity gospel, the cruelty of school, black tax. The last poem is ten lines long and says what the whole book says: Africa first.
The editions
- First edition, 2021: paperback, Ubuntu Afro-Publishers, Bulawayo. A small print run, sold by hand in Zimbabwe.
- Kindle edition, April 2023: on Amazon worldwide (UK, US).
- Second edition, coming: paperback and ebook, revised by the author, with the five poems the first contents page missed.
In Zimbabwe
Printed copies and a PDF are sold direct, paid by EcoCash. Message Romeo on WhatsApp.
In the press
- 8 May 2022 The Standard: Zulu’s book delves into African politics. The Standard profiled the debut and its theme: why African leadership has struggled to develop the continent.
- 10 June 2022 NewsDay: Poet Zulu pens Watchman of Africa anthology. NewsDay’s Tendai Sauta on the book’s call for African unity, and how a songwriter at 13 became a poet at 16. (Archived copy; NewsDay’s own page has moved.)
- 1 December 2022 NewsDay Zimbabwe, Facebook: Romeo Zulu, 2nd runner-up, Gourd of Consciousness National Poetry Writing Competition. Announced alongside his appearance on HStv’s Book Club Sessions, “Poets and community action”.
- 26 January 2023 Three Men On a Boat (3-mob.com): #ThursPoetry: Romeo Zulu, Heritage. The poem Heritage, published in full with a short profile, in partnership with Gourd of Consciousness.
A sample
Three poems are on the poems page: Heritage, Kind Evil and Africa First, with the title poem.