Tears Of The Ancestors by: Sahid Kanu Poem by Sahid Alhaji Kanu

They cried into soil no one blessed,
Their names erased, their truth suppressed.
But still, their tears refused to drown—
they sank like roots beneath the ground.

Each drop they shed became a hymn,
A rhythm pulsing through each limb.
In every breath I draw today,
Their broken prayers still pave my way.

They wept in ships with salted skin,
In languages caged deep within.
They watched the sun from shackled wrists,
Their hope clenched tight in tightened fists.

Not all their tears were made of grief—
some flowed with rage, some carved belief.
Some soaked the wounds they had to hide,
Some rose like storms they kept inside.

I am the echo of their pain,
The harvest rising from their rain.
Their tears did not fall just to fall—
they watered freedom, after all.