They segregated my people.
They threw them into the pig’s sty.
They kept the fruitful soil
for themselves.
“Let them eat dirt,” they say.
While standing on the blood of my people.
While wearing the sweat and tears of my people.
They dare steal,
Yet dare to call us thieves.
Anger built up,
as sweat ran down their melanin skin.
They ran for their lives.
Hearing the souls of their sixty-nine
brothers and sisters crying from the ground.
Today we celebrate Human Rights Day,
because of the lives that we lost,
in the Sharpeville Massacre.
On the 21st of March.
In 1960.
This poem was published in the 15th Issue of PoeticAfrica magazine.
Please click here to download.
More Poems:
Sogoli – Abuthwalib Lukungu (Kenya)
Fu-Su-Li – Rashid Athuman (Kenya)
Kabla Ya Kudijitika – Ijeiza Halima Kimani (Kenya)
Baby Alert – Chekete Christasia (Malawi)