Afzal Moolla: “Africa” _ “The African Winds”

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.

         __ 

*- uBuntu is a South African philosophical concept that espouses “the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity”

_____

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.

_________________________________

2023 CopyLeft Afzal Moolla

20. Mai 2023 Kategorie/n: Frieden, Gerechtigkeit, Menschenrechte, Politik 545 mal angesehen