To Be An African Poem by Tony Adah

To be born in Africa
Is to be born in real darkness
With all the endowment even on the side street
We still grope to find what to eat
Real darkness makes Africa dark
Not the sheen of our ebony skin
That shines like gold
Or our kind hearts that care like a nun.

How can darkness fall at noon?
Why should we stop reading
Or stop learning what will be our children's heritage
Simply because the sun has set?
Why should vaccines given freely
Be allowed to thaw in fridges
And preventable diseases take their toll?

Oh, our Africa
To be born here
Is to be born into real darkness
Africans make Africa dark
They wear diadems and sit
Upon the thrones of wealthy empires
And dodge away with the Commonwealth

They live in mansions
And the common people live
In hovels of the under bridges
They call us dogs and hide away our dry fish
In the hearth of Switzerland
The dogs growl and howl at the hunger
That tear their entrails apart.

To be born in Africa
Is to be born in a continent
That's cursed;
Every woman fries her hair in strands
That mimic the Caucasian race
Or wear long horse tails of the Brazilian
Or Indian hair
It makes us lower our esteem as subhuman.

It makes me tired of being an African
For my brothers and sisters
To rate me as not nice enough;
We must change our minds
For being an African
Is not changing of colour.
To be black is good
And I am proud of it
My two eyes and my two ears
My one nose and my one mouth
My stiff hair and my thick lips
Makes me proudly an African
That I like to be
Simply because I am a human being.