ChickenBones: A Journal

for Literary & Artistic African-American Themes

    

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Have you seen her loneliness? / A mother’s life of aching arms

Packed full with throb of son’s embrace / She holds her longing tightly furled

 
 

 

Mind Games and Other Poems

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Mind Games

 

                  By Betty Wamalwa Muragori

 

I was isolated, a woman all alone

And so, I played with my own mind

I invited nightmares, which unnerved me

I shook my world

I was left debilitated

Like a reflection I became unstuck

 

I was alone in the world,

All on my own,

My mind preyed on me like a vulture

I chased down wisps of terror

And made them my own

Like a rat in the wild there was no escape

The talons of my wits held me firmly in their grip

 

On my own in that place

Alone with tales long since dead

The sound and fury blowing my mind apart

I crouched with fear,

I stumbled and almost fell

Reeling in an avalanche of despair

 

Unexpected, a flash of light

From somewhere,

Blasted my head wide open,

And set me free

I blinked, with my reason

And escaped into the sunshine, embracing bliss

 

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Lonesome

 

By Betty Wamalwa Muragori

 

Have you felt his enduring solitude?

A child raised with no tender hug,

No kind kiss from mother’s lips

No outward proof of love and warmth,

No one to show his schoolwork to

Soon he learns his life is hard

And wraps aloneness close

A gentle shroud to keep him warm

 

Have you seen her loneliness?

A mother’s life of aching arms

Packed full with throb of son’s embrace

She holds her longing tightly furled

And will not show the fondness of her heart

In hard proud life, stray passion has no place

Sentiment is careless lavishness

 

Can you sense their lonesomeness?

Sweetly spiced with deep regret

Between them now a gap lies wide

A brimming hoard of abundant love

Unspoken words, motions denied,

Brush of accidental stroke must for now suffice

As mother, son face broad divide

Their courage binds them near and strong


 

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A Round Pot

 

By Betty Wamalwa Muragori

 

I saw a pot, round and redolent with love

I had to have that pot!

Chocolate brown with brown in it

I reached out to touch it!

Squat with smooth curvaceous shape

Cool plumpness in my open palm

 

That pot beckoned me

Its mouth yawning wide

As if caught in a dazzled spell

I bought three!

 

In the first I plant a blood red rose

Its waving head cast a gentle blush

A bruising kiss on round and luscious sweep

 

The second one received a pure white bloom

A petal lost lingered on a zaftig curve

Virgin chill refreshing in the heat

 

A long straight stem grew in my third fat pot

The contrast pulled the very eye adrift,

Tempting charm that simple earthen urn

posted 6 September 2007

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Betty Wamalwa Muragori is especially interested in how Africans are constructing new identities as they redefine their place in the world.  She believes in the power of words.  She has a BSc degree from the University of Nairobi and MA in Environment from Clark University in Worcester Mass. USA.  Currently Betty works for an international conservation organization in Nairobi, Kenya. 

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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America

By Melissa V. Harris-Perry

According to the author, this society has historically exerted considerable pressure on black females to fit into one of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the Matriarch or the Jezebel.  The selfless Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.     

Professor Perry points out how the propagation of these harmful myths have served the mainstream culture well. For instance, the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for black females to feel a maternal instinct towards Caucasian babies.

As for the source of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their own bodies during slavery given that they were being auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless, it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate indiscriminately.

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Sex at the Margins

Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry

By Laura María Agustín

This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London

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The White Masters of the World

From The World and Africa, 1965

By W. E. B. Du Bois

W. E. B. Du Bois’ Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization (Fletcher)

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Ancient African Nations

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Negro Digest / Black World

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Enjoy!

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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan  /  The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll  /  Only a Pawn in Their Game

Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for Slavery / George Jackson  / Hurricane Carter

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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg

The Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804  / January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of Haiti 

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posted 6 September 2007

 

 

 

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