AFRICAN WOMAN [Seedy Fatty]

AFRICAN WOMAN

Seedy Fatty

The sun and its heat

The dew and its coldness

The night and its darkness

The forest and its thickness

The rain and its thunderstorm

The well and its depth

Ma, the survivor of all condition

Ma, straps a baby to her back

In the kitchen with pestle and mortar

In the farm with a hoe

From the forest with bundle of firewood

From the well with a bucket of water

Up and down the dusty path

Day and night along the dusty road

See her how versatile she is

Educating children and motivating adults

Like a blacksmith bent over the furnace

Forging ore to the desires of his imagination

Ma, queen of the house of Papa

A jewel or treasure of knowledge

You glitter in your sweat under the sun

Like a diamond under the spot light

Ma, your children cherish your love

You can not be denied the fruit of your labour

The labour of your sweat

Ma, if praise is to be given to human

You are the one to be praised

You an African souvenir

The backbone of human civilization

Ma, the black woman, woman of Africa

Why Not Black? [By Cherno Omar Barry]

Why not Black?

Like a slippery eel she joins the world

Youth emerging smiling

Crying for the pleasurable pains of the earth

An argument she has just begun

That which is between Good and Evil

Good reigns

On years of culture and rupture

Blooms her to a smashing rosebud

Epoch of joy and youthful age

Savouring the juices

Full of happiness

In pearls of laughter

Years mount fast the ladder of age

New stage develops

Men, both the old and the young

Skim her with fear and consternation

The devils beauty she carries

Her natural gift of beauty?

Preponderant

Pride, audacity

She does aught

Corrodes the skin a shoddy one

Beauty dying

Opprobrium

Joyful world melts

Butterflies avoid the evil smelling flower

Moths avoid the dying flame

Men’s reprisal, reprehensible girl

Evil in her kismet

Pride of natural colour death!

PURSUIT [by Kuna Nyan]

I wandered among the many ways

The twists and turns that took me no where

I drifted about for many days

In and out of places without a care

I searched high and low for calm and grace

For sanity and the courage to dare

I lived in a world of fear and pain

Hoping to make it without a tear in sight

I stayed in a home that left a dark stain

On my inner strength and will to fight

I slept among those who chipped away every grain

Of my hopes and dreams, my guiding light

I wandered among many pillars of stone

Trying to make sense of whirling emotion

I floated about the vacuum, an empty zone

Without an idea of what I needed, not a notion

I was pushed to walk this quest alone

In pursuit of identity and self promotion

A magic moment I remember [Soffie Manneh]

A magic moment I remember:
I raised my eyes and you were

there.
A fleeting vision, the quintessence
Of all that's beautiful and rare.
I pray to mute despair and anguish
To vain pursuits the world esteems,
Long did I near your soothing accents,
Long did your features haunt my dreams.
Time passed- A rebel storm-blast scattered
The reveries that once were mine
And I forgot your soothing accents,
Your features gracefully divine.
In dark days of enforced retirement
I gazed upon grey skies above
With no ideals to inspire me,
No one to cry for, live for, love.
Then came a moment of renaissance,
I looked up- you again are there,
A fleeting vision, the quintessence
Of all that`s beautiful and rare.

Reply to Gone for a month

Reply to Gone for a month

Tuesday, 24^th, March, 2009, Mbabane, Swaziland

If I could walk the seas and the oceans

Or fly the many air miles between us

I would be with you every day

Here I am, in this mountain -sugar -candy country

My mind absent from me

Like a soul in a body, it refuses to leave you behind

You are that erotic tingle ever present in my heart

Sweet and comforting like the sea breeze

Massaging my wild thoughts of hope for a future

The sugar-like feeling you evoke

Turn my nights into days

You are the ever present company, yet, so far away, you are...

Waiting for your call [by Mariama Khan]

Waiting for your call

Sunday, 29^th March, 2009, Mbabane, Swaziland

I am waiting for your call

Eager like the hungry baby for its mother’s breast

I keep waiting, my mind and eyes glued to the clock

I am hungry for your call

Like a starving man for his last meal

My expectation is sky full

I am aching for your voice

Like a singer outlawed on her vocation

A barren field of emptiness churns within me

My mind is restless with the love of you

Like the confused beauty of Swazi mountain ranges

I desire the stream of your being to cool up my worries

Dark Skin [by Ndey Aaly Cham]

Dark Skin

skin smooth and soft like hershy chocolate
am loving my skin
i've been descriminated for being black and coming from africa
I breath my skin like the air
if staring was a crime brothers already commited one
am not fearful of what people say bout me being dark skin
i might be ugly but damn sure my skin is beautiful
i get complimented by my own brothers
Beautiful skin color, pretty skin colour, damn you sexxy
When can i see you
All that makes me love my skin colour even more
They say i look like fudge brownie and they dont mine eating me
Dark is what i am, and loving the colour.
Dark skin is the hershy chocolate you eat ery day
Whether you love my skin or not
you still eating me