Its not just about you?
I have always had a deep respect for Black history and teh older I get, I find myself challenged and enthralled by it more and more. Every time I go to class, every time I get the opportunity to take an exam and get a good grade, every time I get invited to important meetings or workshops, or chair a meeting, each time I pick up the phone at work and command respect from my title - I marvel. What so many others would have given to have a piece of what I have today! What they would have given!
I know many of us feel 'its not our history' but it is. Humanity has a ripple effect and what affects one affects all. Daily, we still face the aftermath of attitudes, stereotypes, behaviors, expectations that were born in slavery. And maybe, just maybe, if we realise how connected we are to this history, it would change our self esteem, our priorites, our vision, our relationships and our focus. I'm taking the time today, every day, to reflect on the people who went before me and paid - literally - in blood, sweat, tears, fears and prayers, so I could have what I have today. So I could be who I am today, and so I could have hope and dreams for myself, and for my children - a future.
Take a moment to reflect
On your history
I know
It does'nt sound like your history
But it is
Yours
And your children's
Take a moment to appreciate
Sitting anywhere in the bus
Being served in any hotel
Being on a queue
With a white person
Standing fairly behind you
Take a moment to appreciate
Being an educated woman,
Man
Owning a home
Renting a home
In a place of your choice
Take a moment to Thank God
That your children
Can be all they want to be
It wont come easy
But they have the opportunity
Now
Than ever before
over 60 million Africans
Were shipped from their homes
And for them
What we're living today
Was an unachievable dream
60 Million
What would happen to North America
If you shipped out 60 million people
from their continent
This year
I wonder
Take a moment to marvel
At the resiliency of African people
Yes,
We are lost, we are divided,
We are wounded and scarred
Empty lives, faces, meaning
From England,to the Caribbean and back
But we are here
We are here
So Take a moment
For the 60 million lives
That went before you
That you represent today
Wasiwasi
I know many of us feel 'its not our history' but it is. Humanity has a ripple effect and what affects one affects all. Daily, we still face the aftermath of attitudes, stereotypes, behaviors, expectations that were born in slavery. And maybe, just maybe, if we realise how connected we are to this history, it would change our self esteem, our priorites, our vision, our relationships and our focus. I'm taking the time today, every day, to reflect on the people who went before me and paid - literally - in blood, sweat, tears, fears and prayers, so I could have what I have today. So I could be who I am today, and so I could have hope and dreams for myself, and for my children - a future.
Take a moment to reflect
On your history
I know
It does'nt sound like your history
But it is
Yours
And your children's
Take a moment to appreciate
Sitting anywhere in the bus
Being served in any hotel
Being on a queue
With a white person
Standing fairly behind you
Take a moment to appreciate
Being an educated woman,
Man
Owning a home
Renting a home
In a place of your choice
Take a moment to Thank God
That your children
Can be all they want to be
It wont come easy
But they have the opportunity
Now
Than ever before
over 60 million Africans
Were shipped from their homes
And for them
What we're living today
Was an unachievable dream
60 Million
What would happen to North America
If you shipped out 60 million people
from their continent
This year
I wonder
Take a moment to marvel
At the resiliency of African people
Yes,
We are lost, we are divided,
We are wounded and scarred
Empty lives, faces, meaning
From England,to the Caribbean and back
But we are here
We are here
So Take a moment
For the 60 million lives
That went before you
That you represent today
Wasiwasi
posted by Wasiwasi at 10:45 AM
1 Comments:
Sometimes I wonder whether my ancestors collaborated with the slave traders, which would be why our families were spared slavery. Worse still, did they attack the neighbouring tribes and sell them off to the Khartoumers (historical slave and ivory traders from the sudan). For sure while watching basketball I see unmistakable resemblance over and over between those ball handlers and my Nilot-neighbours back home.
Or maybe my ancestors fought off the slave raiders? That I will never know, except that a few hundred years later the chains that dragged me out of the village onto a plane are invisible...heavy too...
Papa Mtiriki
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