Africa
A Poem by Afzal Moolla
I am the blood, coursing through its veins, thumping boldly, the heartbeat of Africa.
I am the sands, sweeping across its deserts, mingling in the soil of Africa.
I am the waters, raging through its rivers, quenching the thirst of Africa.
I am the air, soaring above its lands, breathing life across Africa.
I am the sighs of generations past, brutalised into slavery from the plundered homes in Africa.
I am the words, imbibed in its being, deeply etching a shared yearning, in the daughters and sons of Africa.
I am the mountains, majestic sentinels watching over the children of Africa.
I am the spirit, of ancestors long gone, enveloping the vastness of Africa.
„I am because you are“*.
I am Africa.
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*- uBuntu is a South African philosophical concept that espouses “the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity”
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2.
The African Winds
A Poem by Afzal Moolla
I am the winds of Africa.
I am the winds whispered by the ancients of the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela,
the winds that have heard the murmurs of the ancestors at Great Zimbabwe.
I am the winds of the Upemba,
I am the winds resting at Mapungubwe,
I am the winds above Giza,
I am the winds of the Songhai,
I am the winds of the Djenné-Djenno,
I am the winds of the Numidia,
I have breathed across these lands,
these lands have breathed into me.
I have witnessed colonialists carving up my continent,
I have heard screams of mothers and children,
I have seen the slave-ships set sail,
I carry the memories of my people manacled, and bound in chains.
I have heard the shrieks of my people,
I have seen my lands plundered,
I have borne witness to murder,
to oppression,
to tyranny,
I have caressed far too many bruised bodies,
I have dried far too many mothers tears.
I am the winds of Africa.
I embrace the hope my people carry,
I feel it thud-thudding in their veins,
I encompass my lands bathed with renewed spirit each dawn,
I encompass my lands infused with hope each morn.
I am the winds of Africa.
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2023 CopyLeft Afzal Moolla
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