Find your voice and raise it loud so they hear your accent and broken English
Don’t be drowned out by stereotypes or limitations
Embrace your name in all of its multi-syllabic glory
Love your textures and tones, fashioned from the hues of the adamah
Remember your home, the eve of humanity — the motherland
Grow up as carefree and innocent children of the Son, fearfully and wonderfully made
Wrap your hair and wrap your waist in a spectrum of shapes and colors
As beads line your necks, wrists, and ankles
Stand out in the crowd, do not erase your heritage
Shine bright like the gold from Ophir
When ethnicity rises against ethnicity and kingdom against kingdom, you,
African child, raise your fist of Revelation and remove the veil of separation
and deception
Lay aside all malice to transverse the borders of tribalism and nationalism, to
survive
African child, come forth like a prince out of Kemet, stretch forth your hands
out of Cush, be glad, oh daughters, sing forth Yehudah
For African child your time has come
African child your future is here!
Dance before Yahweh, feel the warmth of the Son, let the Spirit move upon
you, let the wind blow new life into you
Flow like the waters of the Nile, stand tall like Mount Kilimanjaro
African child, let them admire your ancient beauty, be thou endowed with
wisdom, walk in grace, and run with purpose
This is your day;
This is your redemption;
Your salvation is realized.
Be resurrected from oppression and the grave:
AFRICAN CHILD, ARISE!
