From me came forth music from the Horn of Africa
I traveled across the Serengeti plain to the Swahili coast
I walked on the shores of the Indian Ocean and was entranced
With the sounds of Taarab blessing my ears with love
I then grew wings and flew across the Niger Delta
Up to the Nile River and quenched my thirst with its ancient waters
While Pharoah’s voice summoned the days of Joseph and his brothers
I am history
As I explored Timbuktu studying our past
Mansa Musa gave gold laden impressions to the Arab
World wrapped in Persian silk and fine linen
I am the noblest of womb men
You birthed me from the beginning
Your pains created
and negated me
across the Sahara to the Kalahari
The world is not ready
For sun "kissed skin so lovely
Hair so kinky it spirals into 360 degrees
Turning all eyes on me
I am completion
My daily dips in the Congo
While fertilizing the fertile cresent
Occurred on the day of my nascent
Like Nefertiti I walked so elegant
Often mistaken for arrogance
I am queen
So wise I sought wisdom from the wisest of Kings
Accompanied by caravans and gifts far exceeding monetary value
My beauty unrivaled throughout the regions
An entire Bible book was written about my lover’s affections
Resulting in a dynastic line
I am my lover and my lover is mine
I am Makeda
I am so wonderful
that I am a seventh wonder
I grace Giza with my heavenward shape
My radiance gives off kinetic energy with the sun
I am so dope
That the European archeologists were
Intimidated by my nose
So they blasted it. . .
off
I am sphinx
I am so unparalled so envied
That those not indigenous to me
Want to rob me of my precious resources
Convince me that I am worthless
Yet this can’t be true
Because we are hated on in everything that we do
While some were in the Northern seas drinking the blood from human skulls
We were speaking Shona while constructing Great Zimbabwe
and
were scholars in the world’s first schools
I am intelligence
My story has been recorded from antiquity
To modern days
I am so bad
That I Queen Nzingha of Angola
Waged a war against the Portuguese
And years later to do the same
Angela Davis, Assata Shakur, Nelson Mandela,
Malcolm X
Patrice Lumumba, Steve Biko and others
Carry on my liberating name
I am a freedom fighter
My sculptures sit in many a museum and art gallery
Ebony wood carvings and pottery
The bronze color of Benin
Sit in an enclosed case
Broad lips, big nose and dark skin
That classic African face
I am art
Great authors tell my story
And are read the world over
High school and university students are assigned my books
From Achebe, Thiong’o, Emecheta, Soyinka, Patton and Mathabane
To Mandela, Haley, Walker, Kenyatta, Nkrumah and Toure
I am epic
So dope, so tight, so koolllll
No one in the world can touch me
I mean. . .I am as fly as fly can be. . .
Copyright
© 2009 By Angela Malele