Africa
"Remember Africa!" The soil, the land. © Brian Rolfe 2010.
Inspired by a photo of acclaimed photographer Tertius Meintjies.
Poem by David Diop.
David Diop was born in Bordeaux, France, in 1927, to a Cameroonean mother and a Sengalese father.
Africa my Africa
Africa of proud warriors in ancestral savannahs
Africa of whom my grandmother sings
On the banks of the distant river
I have never known you
But your blood flows in my veins
Your beautiful black blood that irrigates the fields
The blood of your sweat
The sweat of your work
The work of your slavery
Africa, tell me Africa
Is this your back that is unbent
This back that never breaks under the weight of humiliation
This back trembling with red scars
And saying no