A proud African
What is it about us that makes us African?
Is it the kinkiness in our hair?
or our vibrant diverse cultures?
Is it the fact that we had to crawl,
through a terrible despair before we could finally learn
to heal and turn the pages of time,
accepting that, it might not have been fair,
but it was all worth it to stand so brave!
The word ”struggle” playing the descriptive role
in our history has been the molding element in our present.
The thing we once called a curse,
has turned out to be the saving grace!
The times we would cry, for peace and serenity,
well those cries, secured the rain
that falls upon a new generation,
that rose from those rivers of tears.
For me…
being African is so much more,
It is more than the kinks and the curls,
so much more than the clicks in our mother tongues
and the melanin in our skin, as rare pearls.
It is the beauty of our past!
The untold stories that are revealed in our eyes,
the memories of gray haired figures telling old tales around a fire,
barefoot walking along riverbanks
and the sound of nature that blessed our childhood.
When life was still in simple black and white . . .
But in the end, struggle is a never ending process
And freedom is never really found
And in order for one to learn their way,
they have to embrace getting lost.
In both, silence and in sound.
26 November, 2022
