Poem: To the African Child

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!