I thought I would give you some poetry today.
One of the reasons why I am giving you this poetic offering today is that
I am missing Athi Patra- Ruga our benign facilitator who went to Berlin
to do much needed work ( It's such a hard life being fabulous)
On my first day at Joule City Athi asked each one of us to do a performance as
a way of introducing ourselves:
I then performed this poem which I think defines a little bit of what I am about.
It is also a poem that I do to ground myself when I open my poetry shows.
this poem has travelled inside me and came out in many stages, cafes, libraries and
its last rendition was here at Joule City so enjoy
Truth
If in this world of
haste and half-baked stories
We can tell our
truth,
It is therefore a
right that I am proclaiming
to draw this
conclusion that
We have more
integrity than we are credited for
We are not the down
trodden victim that is often portrayed
In the images of
those who wish to define us,
If you choose to
look at us with uncontaminated eyes
It is then that you
shall remember
That we are of the
same earth,
We plant our feet
in the same soil
We dance to the
same rhythms
A community of
different shades and colours,
Yet our beauty is
as hypnotising as the shapes of our landscapes.
It is ancient as
the ocean yet as new as the sun rises every morning
It is as pure as
eyes of children and as genuine as the handshakes of the gods
We Africans are not
a distorted chapter in the history of mankind
When you open your
mind to our intelligence,
It is then you
shall realize that we are not only
a place of painters
and poets
do not define me
only by my dance
Listen to my words;
understand the language I speak,
Then maybe you will
find more,
The essence of our
people is as infinite as the steps of our ancestry,
We have always been
the global citizens
Create a space to
re- read our story
We are not
misinterpretation of evolution,
Africa is not just
a pitiful victim
Our strength does
not only lie in pictures we paint
In the songs we
sing but it goes deeper,
Into our minds, our
integrity, our magnificence
We are a vast
community with different shades and colour
but we are of the
same earth, raised in the same land
And only when you
give us a chance,
not only to dance,
Not only to paint,
not only to speak poetry but to participate in the trading, in the driving, in
the planning, in the shaping and mending
So my truth lies in
the essence of my being,
It is as infinite
as the steps of my ancestry,
My story did not
begin at the arrival of false civilianization
It is as ancient as
the oceans yet as new as the sun rises every morning,
It is not the words
of those of who wish to define me,
It is often
distorted even in the history books
I am more than my
dancing feet,
I am more that my
poetic rhymes
My story is not
hidden in the stereotypical definitions,
To understand my
truth is to understand what makes me beat
It is understand
what make me dance
It is to understand
what makes me laugh
It is to allow me
to occupy this
Space with you and
know that we are
of the same earth,
we plant our feet in the
same soil
We breathe the same
air,
we quench our
thirst with the same water
and my truth is as
infinite as the steps
of my ancestry.
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