I am a survivor; I am destiny’s true child.
As a result of Ham’s curse I was exiled.
For more than three millennia,
Others have sought to mask my contributions on this earth.
They live in fear;
Because, my mother was the first mother to give birth
I come from a long line of long orderly lines.
I am at the center of all Diop and Leakey’s finds.
I’ve been misunderstood since I gave others understanding.
I’ve been oppressed because; my nature is not to be demanding.
I took flight before Orville and Wilbur Wright.
I postulated of things seen without sight.
I was transported on the slave ship ‘Sweet Jesus’.
Then I was forced to ride on the back of the bus.
Bound and gagged, whipped and chained;
Despite these and other tortures, still I have remained.
Lynched, simply because I was black!
Injected with cancer, syphilis and AIDS;
Subjected to late night SWAT team raids.
Thrown on the front lines, as fodder, to fight for other people’s sovereignty.
Then returned to a world where my people still live in poverty.
I’ve been stepped on for so long that a step up is,
Not looking at the bottom of someone else’s shoe.
I’ve struggled against hope for so long,
That without some type of struggle I wouldn’t know what to do.
But I’m a survivor competing with cockroaches and bacteria for the ‘Iron Man’ title.
I’m trying to find a way to get on top! So there’s no time t waste being idle.
Who needs the Gulf? My war medals come from dodging bullets from 45’s and nines.
And my conquest is platinum plaques from the creation of gold plated rhymes.
I’m a survivor.
I’m an African!
