Decades had passed;
the past still remains
We could still see the brutal masters
The suffering they caused us; the pain that never subsides
More than five decades since freedom crept in dribs and drabs
When our bodies were freed; but not our minds
The taste was sweet; the attainment was marvelous
We crawled from there;
limped to the shores
Our faces disheveled like lame beggars
Drunk and dizzy with pain;
deaf to even hoots
Indelible sores on innocent and fragile bodies
Marks of dubious
identification on foreheads
Meted out to us by
their cranky masters
Then, our bodies were bywords for pains
Day and night; in scorching sun and gummy mud
Our daddies and mummies marched in chains
Shackled from feet to heads like draught animals
They staggered
miles in thorny grasses
Heading to destination unknown; heading to the oceans
Weak ones were used to hunt down their own ‘colors’
They were pushed and hit; thrown into the dark Viking ships
And packed like
sacs of rotten potatoes
Left to rot and
arranged like sardines
Those who resisted
to become slaves
Were taught brutal lessons
Which years after are
still fresh in minds
And keep haunting us like nightmares
Who said we didn’t need something to eat?
Or water; even animals need food
Millions were shipped; millions were killed
Millions of our mothers were raped; millions jettisoned
Into the shark-infested seas
Tears coursed down their cheeks
Forced to work
on the plantations
Producing food and raw materials
Forced to smirk in pain; pretended glad
Lest, they would kill you without batting an eyelid
These cumulative atrocities went unpunished
And they persisted without atonement
Now we co-exist cheek by jowl with the masters
Telling us to let bygones be bygones
To forget the pain and the marks on our backs
To overlook our centenarian eunuchs
Who could not procreate this generation
To turn a blind eye to the irreparable damages incurred
When to them, even a slap should be redressed
How about the damages they caused Africa?
The decades of shipping our able-bodied souls
Decades of rapine, looting and killings
They have broken our willpower; the youths
Leaving a pool of blood in their wakes
Not only that; millions of widows and orphans
We still cannot recover cuz of the destruction
That’s why we call for compensation
Otherwise all ties sever; even miscegenation
