THEMED SECTION 2
POETRY

 

Xen

 

 

Trésor Musasa Kabamba

University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. tmkabam@gmail.com

 

 

Native born yet imported

but I'm still important.

Got documents and files

still might be stabbed with a file.

Borders sketched on maps by false white masters,

yet drawn in blood by our African masses.

We torment persecute and murder our own:

Xenophobes, are you loyal to your skin: like Jesus or Judas?

Our black skin is the cross borne by us

Under the weight, our vertebrae are ground to dust.

Still, our blood: beloved own, strip us bare,

and whip gashes in our backs like our skin don't tear.

Fading masters left with keys to our resources,

left knives for black throats and police forces

Slavery was the first, xenophobia the sequel

Did the Word not say we're all made equal?