We Be: A Senegal Trip Poem
Written by Mika’il Stewart Saadiq (8/22/2019)
Once I found myself in Africa, I truly realized that Africa was in me.
It wasn’t until I saw Africa, that I truly saw the Africa in you —
from the cadence of your speech, to the beat of your walk
animated expression and passionate talk.
How your skin drinks the sun, humbly asking for more
your soul saturated with the song of Senegalese shore.
Inside of Africa! I found myself comfortable inside myself, a reflection of those outside myself.
Those who don’t see being Black as a political statement, but of no consequence.
Inside of Africa! Where they speak French or English, and someone will say, “Screw you!” and “Allez vous faire foutre!” and speak Wolof and Manday anyway.
Inside of Africa! Where the descendants of White colonizers see justification for Black Nationalism.
And Inside of America! Blacks and Whites will call you racist for justification of Black Nationalism, and Pan Africanism!
Outside of Africa! Africans in stasis exist in many places
Asiatic eyes, flared nostrils, and high cheek-boned faces — drawn, sculpted, and painted through the ages, admired and despised.
Black gold in all your weight,
with hands outstretched, heft and assess your own fate.
Inside of America! Built on your back, demand to exist for the whips that were cracked and flesh that was split, for persons a lit, for numerous bodies that lay in a pit.
Demand to exist! Demand to live
and command a future with more life to give.
Inside of America! We cannot be denied! No matter how many vultures peck out the eyes of Black enterprise.
Black Child of Diaspora you cannot deny Africa! Everyone except you is telling you to “Go back to Africa!”
So “Go back to Africa!” If only in mind
your cultural foundation is what you will find,
to draw a new map for what it means to be Black.
Embrace all that you are released from your trap.
So represent your block, your city, or your state
but be sure to claim Africa, it’s written all over your face.
Inscribed with scars of tribes erased,
raise your head and ask the Heavens to arrive at your place.
And once you arrive you actually see
