I am the winds of Africa.
I am the winds whispered by the ancients of the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela,
the winds that have heard the murmurs of the ancestors at Great Zimbabwe.
I am the winds of the Upemba,
I am the winds resting at Mapungubwe,
I am the winds above Giza,
I am the winds of the Songhai,
I am the winds of the Djenné-Djenno,
I am the winds of the Numidia,
I have breathed across these lands,
these lands have breathed into me.
I have witnessed colonialists carving up my continent,
I have heard screams of mothers and children,
I have seen the slave-ships set sail,
I carry the memories of my people manacled, and bound in chains.
I have heard the shrieks of my people,
I have seen my lands plundered,
I have borne witness to murder,
to oppression,
to tyranny,
I have caressed far too many bruised bodies,
I have dried far too many mothers tears.
I am the winds of Africa.
I embrace the hope my people carry,
I feel it thud-thudding in their veins,
I encompass my lands bathed with renewed spirit each dawn,
I encompass my lands infused with hope each morn.
I am the winds of Africa.
A Poem by Afzal Moolla
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