Reclaiming Our Roots

Know your root and follow it

Township, a ship that never docks,
A colonial tool, to bind us in locks.
Concentration camps for the Black soul,
Reduced to cogs, stripped of control.
Colonization�"more than a clever device,
It shattered our culture, our spirit, our life.
And so colonization planted its seed,
Breaking us down in five cruel deeds.
They desecrated our shrines,
Broke our gods, unraveled the divine.
To be colonized is to watch your spirit fall,
The thread that bound us�"severed, small.
They stripped away our tongues,
Changed the words we spoke since young.
In foreign speech, our history erased,
Mysteries hidden, dreams displaced.
They redefined our food,
Twisting the essence of what we understood.
For we are what we eat, they knew it too,
So they fed us lies, distorted the view.
They dressed us in foreign clothes,
So we lost the essence our culture knows.
Wrapped in garments not our own,
Little Europeans in skin and bone.
They changed our names,
Chords to ancestors lost in their games.
Wearing the names of those who enslaved,
Disconnecting us from the veins we once braved.
Township, a ship that never finds land,
A colonial concept, a tyrant’s hand.
But now, the tide begins to shift,
We rise with knowledge, hearts uplift.
To break these chains and claim our own,
We must rebuild from seeds we’ve sown.
Restore the shrines, the gods we lost,
Revive the spirits, no matter the cost.
Speak the tongue of our native lands,
Let history live through our hands.
Nourish our bodies with food once pure,
Sustain our souls with roots that endure.
Wear the cloth of our own design,
Let it speak of culture, rich and divine.
And names, our lineage, we must reclaim,
To reconnect with ancestral flame.
For in our names, our stories are told,
In our own truth, we are bold.
The pillars of colonization will fall one by one,
As we stand together, our journey begun.
The township will transform, the chains will break,
In unity, a new world we will make.

Author's Note

Your review means a lot to me for continuous improvement

Reviews

[Lola]

This poem powerfully captures the deep scars left by colonization, using vivid imagery to convey the loss of identity, culture, and spirit. I appreciate how it moves from a place of despair to one of hope and reclamation, urging a revival of ancestral roots and unity. The metaphor of the township as a ship that never docks is particularly striking, symbolizing a journey of oppression that can, and must, be overcome. It's both a lament and a rallying cry for liberation.

[Ita Bobo DAfrican Poet]

Thanks Lola

[jacob erin-cilberto]

this is so honest and colored with the sadness of losing one's culture and identity...to be stripped of it by those who thought they were better.
We are all humans, why can't we love one another as just that. The chains must be broken...
Each individual deserves to have his or her culture honored and kept alive.
j.

[Ita Bobo DAfrican Poet]

Thanks J. The chains must be broken indeed.

[Arundass TP]

Excellent poem that point out past history. Well written

[Ita Bobo DAfrican Poet]

Thanks my brother

[Quin]

very nice. i love and respect the subject matter. you might want to explore different rhyming patterns, and non rhyming as well.

[Ita Bobo DAfrican Poet]

Thanks Quin

[Green]

I think this handled a rather sensitive topic very well. In a lot of ways you moved the conversation past just race and into culture and heritage and holding onto those things. It was long but it wasn’t excessively long, each part was making a point and contributed to the overall theme. I also like that you didn’t use lots of flowery language. It’s not a pleasant subject and sometimes, especially as poets, we can get very lost in the metaphors and descriptions of things. This didn’t do that. It described things but it was like the poem version of showing not telling when you describe the attempts at erasure of a culture.
It could just be the fact that I’m on a mobile version right this second (I never know what that messes up) but I had some weird wingding like symbols in my version where I think some type of punctuation was meant to be. That’s a small computer thing though and it doesn’t impact the message or power of this read.

[Ita Bobo DAfrican Poet]

Thanks Green. Points well noted

[Glenda]

Nobody in my family ever owned slaves. The very rich with lots of land to tend could purchase helpers.
I talked with a Ghanaian boy for many years and helped him get into University.
As a child, my family would have starved if not for white church people.
I think MOST people ALL OVER THE WORLD want to help in times of need.
Adomah. the boy I helped, said the African government is so corrupt we were afraid they would take what little bit I could send.
I respect your right to value heritage but do you ever think where you would be if not for the past?
Yes, I believe the poem should include the ones that did help. If not for the renegade whites, where would the Underground Railroad led?
You have a good base to develop. Why do people always want to focus on the bad? God help us. All.

[Ita Bobo DAfrican Poet]

Points well noted Glendak

[Glenda]

Thank you for seeing my point. I grew up in a very racially divided world. But I KNOW there were and ARE people who FIGHT for the RIGHT cause. All people want to see is bad, though. PS The boy I helped into University is thriving now with a family of his own (: God bless.

[Glenda]

ALSO, I had to fight a husband to send money so there was not peace in my home many years because I wanted to help. Eventually HE divorced ME so I am on my own paying bills and nobody is helping me. But God.

[KwekuAndoh]

Deep construction. These words unearth the painful journey of the African revealing pain and suffering that has not yet been sufficiently understood by humanity. Today we may see it as issues against an African race but in the big picture humanity is doing this to ourselves..

[Ita Bobo DAfrican Poet]

Rightly said. Thanks Menua