You can kiss my afro...

Taking stock, as I gleefully enter my 30s  - I have reviewed who I believe myself to be. You grow up and people tell you all sorts of crap about how you are meant to feel about yourself, the colour of your skin and the weight of your pocket on pay day. They would have me believe that I am nothing but a bush baby, destined to be the clown, court jester politcal no mans land with a bad afro. But you know what, screw that...this is who I AM.

Bush Baby

 

My name is whispered on the winds of the kalahari desert and the sea breeze of the atlantic ocean. 

I am the descendent of a people who 

w a n d e r s, 

gathers and hunts. 

I am strong and long suffering...

My family is gathered from the different corners of the world - 

shunned because I am not black enough nor white enough, 

I take pride in my colouredness...in my otherness. 

I am kind and understanding.

Molded by the legacy of my ancestors faith, my family and I choose to believe in 

ONE true God, Son and Holy Spirit. 

That Jesus died on the cross and rose again.

I am sinful and I am a believer...

God has redeemed me and for that I thankful.

I learned work ethic by watching my father work into the early hours of the morning, 

I understand humility and sacrifice when I hear the stories of what my family has had to do, to survive.

I am the domestic worker

I am the girl selling matches on the street corner

I am the wife who makes the choice to stay, when my husbands eye wanders...

I am the potential homeless, the in-prisoned and the bitter gall of dissapointment that could be my fate if I choose not to make the right choices. 

I am the consequences of my choices and what my faith makes me...

My story is filled with near misses and miracles. 

I have been broken and rebuilt

I have been blinded by tears and my head  has been bowed with dissapointment

 but oh, 

I  have found myself smiling under the warm rays of the african sun, swaying in the soft breeze with smell of fresh cut grass filling my senses...

My God is faithful even when I haven't been to myself.  

Over the last while, the colours of my world has not shone as brightly as they had before - but they will again...because I have decreed it so...

I am at peace with myself and the journey of my people...

I am the success my forefathers slaved for

I have the freedom they wept for...I am not bound my husbands paycheck nor the laws of my land...I am free...

 Who am I? 

I am the fulfilled hope of my ancestors

the link between past generation pain and the glory of what is to come.

I am a warrior princess...

and I will stand by you....