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If I
Ain't African
By Glenis Redmond
If I ain’t African
someone tell my heart
to
stop beating like a djembe drum.
If I
ain’t African
someone tell my hair
to
stop curling up like the continent
it is
from.
If I
ain’t African
someone tell my lips
to
stop singing a Yoruban song.
Someone speak to my hips,
tell
them their sway
is all
wrong.
If I
ain’t African
how
come I know the way home
along
the Ivory Coast?
Feel
it in my breast of bones.
If I
ain’t African
how
come my feet do this African dance?
How
come every time
I’m in
New Orleans or Charleston
I fall
into a trance?
If I
ain’t African how come
I know
things I’m not supposed to know
about
the middle passage-slavery
feel
it deep down in my soul?
If I
ain’t African
someone tell their gods
to
stop calling on me,
Obatala, Ellegba, Elleggua,
Oshun,
Ogun!
Tell
me why I faint
every
time
there
is a full moon.
If I
ain’t African
how
come I hear
Africa
Africa Africa
everywhere I go?
Hear
it in my heartbeat
hear
it high
hear
it low.
If I
ain’t African
someone tell my soul
to
lose it’s violet flame.
Someone tell their gods
to
call another name.
Someone take this drumbeat
out of
my heart.
Someone give my tongue
a new
mouth
to
part.
If I
ain’t African
someone tell my feet
to
speak to my knees
to
send word to my hips
to
press a message on to my breast
to
sing a song
to my
lips
to
whisper in my ear,
If I
ain’t African
If I
ain’t African
If I
ain’t African
PLEASE
tell
my eyes
‘cause
if I ain’t African,
I
ain’t livin’, and
God
knows,
I
ain’t
ALIVE!
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posted 16 August 2007 |
