BLACK MOTION

Ngaphansi kwesikhumba soMzimba wami 

 Struggle is woven ever so tightly around the fabric of my African baked melanated skin every crevace corner pore and follicle 

Screams of 

Mother’s and father’s jumping overboard to escape the plantation fate  

Sons and daughters drenched in adolescent blood running unarmed dodging bantu education bullets on the streets of Soweto  

Grandmother’s and grandfather’s crouching within the Matebele green  

Breaths paused to avoid the 5th brigade 

But struggle is not the only shade of my melanated skin 

From the military prowess of Dombo And Tshaka 

 my forearms are glazed in cow horn formation greatness  

 my golden stool-brown face was chiseled by the Asante’s stone Mason’s perfection it’s 

 As beautiful as Senzangakhona 

 The Khoi , Xhosa and Eritreans consummated and birthed my light-skinned tongue  

But it is not as slick as Achebe’s pen nor does it carry the wisdom of silky white-haired Sonyika 

My thighs are as dark as a blend of the Biafran war and the Mfecane sprinkled with the Gukurahundi and the Rwandan genocide 

See the many shades of my skin  

Tell stories 

Stories of pain, joy, triumph, failure,greatness, weakness 

Like Mbeki said “I AM AN AFRICAN” 

I am ahead of my time like Sankara 

I am the intelligence of Cheikh Anta Diop 

the bravery of Nkwame 

The elegance of Ramsees the 3rd 

The wealth of Mansa  

The ….. Of Wangari Maathai 

The youthful exuberance of Ndlozi 

The divisiveness of Gbowee 

The Afrikanicity of Pathisa Nyathi 

The stubbornness of Karma the 1st 

Served with a dash of Mqhabuko’s presence  

I grew in the womb of Indlovukazi uNandi so I am a King 

The Global North has attempted to nurture me as nothing but a struggle  

Conditioned as a problem to be solved 

They have attempted to erase my Aksumite  trail blazer DNA 

But the Winnie in me will not be silenced  

The blood of the Mau Mau is a resident of  my veins  

So I will stand strong in who I am 

Because it’s hard to kill a king who is self aware   

By Dumoluhle Moyo