I have exhausted my ink, my pen, my hand.

My tongue has unlearned all languages,
all terms of endearment and soft sayings.

I am no longer flesh, no longer blood,
but have transformed myself into wind:

a wind that has traveled the oceans for you,
a wind that has discovered Africa's worth,

that has lifted me into an African skirt
where the origin of everything began.

"
I'm am tired of people asking me to smooth my name out for them

They want me to bury it in the english so they can understand.

I will not accommodate the word for mouth

I will not break my name so your lazy english can sleep its tongue on top.

Fix your lips around it.

"

Here’s to those who
Looked at me with proud eyes
Because my skin was dark

FYI
I am still dark
And I am proud that I can never change
I am a tigress in the zoo
That you will always want to tame
But always lack the power

Not only you
But my inner self too
Always discouraged me from hanging in
She didn’t believe a day would come
When she would be proud of her outer self
I am strong
Learned
African
Woman…

I know I cannot have your sympathy
I just ask you to understand

The truth is
I understand the land
But I'm tired of standing under another man
Only to be perfectly misunderstood purposely

Inside of my ferociousness
It's hurting me
Because I know there's always a start, but never an end
Have you ever fought a continuos fight that you can never win?
You can never understand

I never think much about the fact that I am black.
I know I am black.
Like I know I am a girl,
Like I know I am an American,
Like I know I am nineteen.
It is a fact; I am black.

I hate when people say I am not.
My parents are black.
Their parents are black.
We are black.
Look at my skin,
It's dark and it's beautiful.
How could I not be black?
I am black.

I hate when people say I don't 'act' black.
How does one act to be considered black?
How am I acting? How is it not black?
Look at my skin,
It's dark and it's beautiful.
How could I not act black?
I am black.

I hate when people say I speak like a white person.
A way of speaking is not exclusive to race.
I am not white.
I do not speak like a white person.
My words are coming out of my black mouth.
I speak properly,
The way my black parents raised me to.
Look at my skin,
Its dark and it's beautiful.
How could I not speak black?
I am black.

I HATE when people say I am a white person trapped in a black body.
I have NEVER heard anything more insulting.
I am NOT trapped.
This color is NOT a cell.
I wear it proudly.
Look at MY skin,
It is DARK and it is BEAUTIFUL!
How could I ever be trapped?
I am black.

I am in no way white,
Nor do I ever want to be.
I am black
And black is beautiful

To those who protest on why they should say the word *****
Unfollow me

To those whose heart does not mourn over an innocent life of POC
Unfollow me

To those who yell "go back to Africa"
Unfollow me
if you cannot comprehend that your ancestors where not here first

To those who fail to understand their white privilege
Unfollow me

To those who scream out "what about black on black crime"
Unfollow me
If you're blind to the multiple genocide your people create and label as "war"

To those who simply choose to ignore this injustice
Unfollow me for no action at all is the greatest injustice of all

On the strings
Binding mortals together, you lay your dagger
And set apart,
The centre that holds us together…

You set
Our household in despair
And unending
Tears and sorrows, you fill our souls and hearts with...

You are...
Yes, a silent murderer, surely, you are:
You invade the joy that fills
The household of mortality and leave endless mourning songs on our tongues...

In your presence,
Where is the refuge of mortality?
In your eyes,
What is the value of mortality’s breath on this earth?

From nowhere
You have stepped your feet in our territory
Draining breaths
And raiding souls...alas, you plant the seed of fear in our hearts...

You fill
Our thoughts with forts of weary
And crush
Our hearts with dagger of fatality…

You set
Deafening quake and pains in our souls
And wane the survival
Of mankind on this shore with your arrival…

Ebola—
You, innocent faced murderer
Who has found
A niche in the home of strong-but-weak mortals...

Ebola,
Many you have set on that Voyage Of No Return¬¬—
Their wails, alas,
We hear in the silent night as their bloods smell on your arms…

You are
A scare to our existence
For life is death
And death is life with the arrival of your presence…

Ebola,
You’re but, a thief of souls...
Murderer!
Ebola, O’ yes, you are a silent ******—

You are
The silent murderer reaping our souls and setting down our household—
You are the murderer
Yet, feared to be approached by even the 'mighties'…

You are
An unseen beast; you’re a barbaric stranger...
You are but,
A silent murderer in our home...

We wholly
Hate you from the depth of our souls—
Dark or white,
Ebola, yes, we truly all hate you!


Oswald Okaitei
(World Poetry Theatre Ambassador from Ghana Project)

From WHISPERS OF A HEART
(C) 2014

In their blind bid
To become westernized,
They lost touch with reality
Created shadows of themselves
Despised their own intrinsic values
Embraced a twisted dress sense
Of fallen pants and revealed underpants
Idolized everything they're not
The good, the bad, the ugly
They birthed dual personalities
Picked up foreign accents
On ****** home-based passports
The American Dream, they call it,
As they wear winter jackets
In scorching African sun
All in the name of fashion
Trading our simple hues
For complex shades unknown
Bleaching skin and hair
Trading natural black for artificial white
Unaware the very gods they adore
Are tanning theirs to look darker
Insecurity drives them mad
Inferiority complex overtakes them
As they ban mother tongues in offsprings
Placing exotic tongues on pedestals
At the expense of our cultural future.

This is not an attempt at poetry
This is wake up call to Africa
Be bold, be proud, be black!
You are BEAUTIFUL!!
You are AFRICAN!!!*


© Raphael Uzor