When the highest bidder wanted to buy a monkey –
his assistant gave him me;
and this is what I had to say:
I am African, but, I am not a Monkey, a Gorilla or a
Chimpanzee
we are custodians of the best wildlife
we house the best creatures to ever exist in this life-
the black Elephant
the lion whose tribe is Judah
the Cheetah
have you looked at an Okapi
or at the beauty of a mantled Guereza?
We do not bite; we are depictions of congeniality – you should go back to learn your A’s and B’s;
not these stories that they tell you about us
We are all about family trees,
With roots as strong as the mukula
We only get stronger and better
Tuleya telekula (We keep growing)
We are all about cultural diversity
We believe in unity
The spirit of Ubuntu (I am because you are)
Fwebaishibo utuntu (We are the wise)
We hail from the land of the sun
We are natural bred warriors
We are children of the deserts, savannahs, the plateaus, the mountains and the valleys
The keepers of our grandparent’s stories
If Wakanda is something new to you,
we have lived our entire lives with the spirit of a black panther
This blood we bleed is the blood of Shaka
This soil, this is the soil that birthed greats like Utata Madiba
we cannot run away from the great musicianship or the
unique artistry of late legends Lucky Dube, Oliver Mtukudzi, Paul Ngozi –
We are Africans!
We house the best minerals,
from the diamonds, the gold, the platinum, aluminium,
We have the oils and the gases
From the Copperbelt to the city of Gold,
we are a world that exists within a world –
Why do you think they scrambled for Africa?
We do not believe in banting
We believe in wanting to eat what we want to eat
And you are not a welcomed guest in our house if we don’t ask you to eat
We love our shisa nyama , kapenta with sadza, tuute nembalala down south
Our joolof rice and egusi soup in the west
Our posho in the east
And we go all the way up to taste koshari in Egypt
We are professionals of cultural coloured cuisines –
as colourful as our clothes as we cover ourselves in our dashikis,
our kente, ankara, or colourful chitenges
we do not forget to wrap ourselves in our beautiful head ties
as we carry our pride with us –
After all we are the birthplace of civilization,
We are not the fossils of a sunken city
You called us a dark continent
We are not a dark continent
We are not made of darkness
we do not climax on a dark night
we are but the bantu.
we are not poor
maybe we just got in bed with you too early
which led to the launch of your global poverty prevention project
the birth of your philanthropies
living us with nothing but Aid
Or is it Aids?
Who needs chains
for the 21st century slave?
Benevolent slavery is a mind game
which makes you believe that emancipation
is just an ocean of imagination –
You can walk in but never get wet –
I can still hear them bidding-stop bidding!
– Africa is not for sale –
****
[Courtesy of the author]
Link to the Italian translation