Legerdemain
Kayo Chingonyi

and, at last, you have come upon
the jewel in the crown of our collection
here at the Royal Museum for Central Africa:
a magnifying glass used by one
of the King’s functionaries
who, by Royal decree, remained
unsung among the sons of Europe
until recently. Note the engraving
on the ivory handle that tells us
this glass was used in the Kasai.
Since the official report was redacted
some of you might be unaware
of this particular brand of magic:
the ‘trick was to use a magnifying
glass to light a cigar, “after which
the white man explained his intimate
relation to the sun, and declared
that if he were to request [the sun]
to burn up his black brother’s
village it would be done”’*
and so it was the land changed hands
as a cigar, given light, becomes a stub
and its smoke that stays with you
is the smoke from a burning village.

Kayo Chingonyi was born in Zambia in 1987, moving to Britain in 1993. He holds a BA in English Literature from the University of Sheffield and an MA in creative writing from Royal Holloway, University of London, and works as a writer, events producer and creative writing tutor. This poem was commissioned by the Emma Press for its Campaign in Poetry anthology. For more information visit: http://theemmapress.com/ 

* George Washington Williams as quoted in King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild

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