Black, White, Brown, Mixed…. So What!
Need I blow the vuvuzela?
To make you understand, my brothers and sisters
That a rainbow is a rainbow because of all its colours
I’ve been watching children play, watching them grow
They miss nothing and see everything
Everything but the colour of skin colour
Life in their eyes
Is like a big lollipop with eyes
Why can’t we all be children like?
Black, white, brown, mixed… so what!
Oh yes! I am aware of history
Aware of its ugly faces I am
Evil too, and its recycled phases breeding doom
But history just like the seasons transitions with time
There are times of winter, drought and famine
But just as sure as day will follow night, the rains will come
Times of plenty and plenty of sunshine
Black, white, brown, mixed… so what!
That fleeting illusion that Bob Marley sang about
That dream alluded to by Martin Luther King on the hill
That robbed Mandela’s freedom on Robben Island
Village pitted against village, Nation against Nation
That valley of human values, the trough beyond which we cannot fall
And claim to be human at all
That line has been crossed
And I for one am cross
To see such great work by such greats
Put to such great waste
Black, white, brown, mixed… so what!
Does it count?
That I count as the minority of the county
Why does my blackness or whiteness or brownness
Break the banks of their patience
They that are not gifted with colour blindness
That see not beauty deeper than skin pigment
Carry they excuses hollower than elephant tasks
That will not forgive the past
Their ignorance can be trusted to take more to the grave than flying bullets
And their hate to enslave more than binding chains
How better are they than cats and dogs?
That hate for the sake
How sad are we to feed of the hate bowl?
For goodness sakes
Black, white, brown, mixed… so what!
By Dumi Senda
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