African Renaissance! African Renaissance? Poem by Lungelo Mpatho

We do not need a renaissance
They needed a renaissance
Because they were in darkness
Back to our roots Africa must go
Fanti, the constitution makers
Zulu, the nation builders…
All sons and daughters, kings and queens

You are the center of creation
Mother to modern civilization
You need to know your history
You need to rediscover yourselves
The truth stolen from you
Is the truth, that makes you rule

See how they called you Black
O! Dark Continent!
Because they sat in BLACKNESS
In their Dark Ages
Waiting for the Light
To rise up from the East
We do not want charity…

We know who we are
How we got to where we are
Human-trades, slave-trades, exploitation!
It is no mystery, this our history-
UBUNTU, our philosophy!
AMANDLA, our peoples’ power!

We know who we are
How we got to where we are
From where we come
To where we are going
We are the survivors
In a place where life’s a struggle
O, Yea! We struggle continually!