I am African

I am African

Because in the stillness of the night

My heart beats to the rhythm of Gambian drums

And my mind thrills to the resonance of Nigerian poetry

I am African

Eyes drinking in dramatic Malian paintings

Ears thrilling to the sounds of Wolof words

Mandinka phrases, Krio sentences

I am African

Because my body is glad to be housed in a hut

With cool mud walls near a rice field in Kenya

And my soul sings for joy under wide open Ethiopian skies

I am African

Because my skin is brown but inside me I’m all black

And shiny with Zimbabwean palm oil, my spirit soaring 

Over the Kalahari and swooping into an orange sunset

I am African

Because I’m a back-to-the-basics kind of person

And this is the cradle of human civilization, raw

Real, radically different from every other continent.

I am African.