Yes I am black
My dark skin
Says I’m kin
Beneath my feet with the loam soil
Dampened by summer rains
That fills the Orange and Kei rivers

Yes I am black
Like brown autumn leaves
That carpets the Hogsburg forest
Giving its antelopes
A royal promenade
Where King Hintsa-
Out smarted a Dutch sniper so trusted

Black I am
Like moonless winter nights
With their stars,
Depicting my face

I’m neither a remnant
Or a descendant-
Of the devil
Nor I’m a curse bestowed
By some ancient god

Rather I’m a marvel
A beautiful jewel
Adorning Africa
And I’m its defining symbol
A land so ravaged
Now left to bleed
Courtesy of you vicious greed
But I and my Africa
Are proving to be resilient like our Protea
Which after unforgiving veld fires
Again, quickly rises

I am surprised
When you call me uncivilised and uneducated
But my witches and sangomas
With their herbs and bones
Heal, and during drought call rains
Acts unexplained by your western science

I am surprised
When at me you glance
And I see disapproving countenance
But when that I emulate
I see natural beauty filling me with pride

You call me a baboon or a monkey
Your attempts to demoralise and insult
But to me a complement
That puts me one with nature
Where does that leave you?