WHAT MAKES YOU AFRICAN
What makes you African is not skin color,
But how you see yourself in the reflection of mirrors from within, how transparent you are to you
What defines African is not language, we are diverse we can speak life,
Because we have to, so nobody feels small not to even create or package himself.
We are not to be intimidated by men we are the cradle
What makes you African is not the ability to beg because where there is vastness, there is ability to last,
Where there is minerals, payrolls should be self serviced, there is light if we begin seeing and seizing it
What makes you African is not a government that’s always wrong, a people that are always in favor of who’s giving much, a system driven by political impulse, a continent where change will come only from a poet’s mouth but what we are doing to young aspiring political leaders
What makes us Africans are not broken families, what didn’t work, the kisses from the sun for a single parent, the tosses of a struggling parent but how we single out who to leap with, Africa is beautiful
But marriage doesn’t go wrong but starts wrong you see
What makes you African is not a humble background, humility is cool but pride that can change your ending, make every ending proud of what crafts you
What makes you African is not what IT brings to the table but the problems we can solve locally,
We don’t have to be part of other people’s plans, we can create these aids ourselves
You don’t know what life is bringing you, cold or hot, sour or something, you are just scared
What makes you African is not the education that didn’t educate you, the school fees that didn’t keep you in class but the the gift that thrives in you,
You vision will take you and your mind will engulf that destiny, see but differently,
For again it’s about risk and audacity, do it.
What makes you African is not silence, it’s not sitting waiting for life to tell your story,
For again life should not tarry in eulogies, we should live in the presence and engulf ourselves in it, toiling and let our barns catch up with our children’s children,
For a shut mouth is but a shut identity
What makes you African is not the ability not to afford, the rat race of debts, wobbling from job to no job, but the ability to own instead,
For again if money is to answer everything, is about time we look for the questions,
Like where are we going to? Are our visions still able to see and not blinded by a culture that says money attracts evils?
What makes you African is not the odd jobs, any jobs that will keep us engaged, everybody’s dream to leave their country,
But should be creating those jobs ourselves for ourselves and being apt for the gems with us and for where we are going
What makes you African is not proximity to your parent’s house, nobody tells you to grow up.
But it’s about time I remind you, there comes a time there is no place for you at home,
When your parents know less than you do,
You are not an amateur any more, we need to rise up as a continent because we know more than the past
For a wheelchair is not good for a lame man, only walking will move him
Braille is not a gift to a blind man only if he could see the power of his intuition in real time
A newspaper is not a gift to an old man, he has time to read what he cannot change or reverse but watch in dead silence,
But we young people can reverse everything, turn those newspapers to magazines so our visions can last.
Its about time we stop being too comfortable as Africans as we are
I speak for my generation
Thank you!
By James Musau
