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Title: If I Ain't African by Glenis Redmon Post by: Oshun_Auset on February 03, 2004, 02:15:04 PM If I Ain't African someone tell my heart to stop beating like a d'jembe 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 - Charleston I fall into a trance? If I ain't African how come I know things I ain't suppose 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, Yemaya, 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 Iow. If I ain't African someone tell my soul to lose this violet flame someone tell their Gods to call another name. someone take this drum beat 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 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! by Glenis Redmon http://www.scla.org/docs/redmondpoems.html |