A poem from The Watchman of Africa
Heritage
Romeo Zulu, 2021. Published in full by Three Men On a Boat in January 2023, in partnership with Gourd of Consciousness.
Dripping melanin
With hair that wants to touch the sky,
Hair that defies gravity,
Maybe I am cursed.
By Europeans who were conquered,
By my forefathers the Moors.
Cursed by Japanese who were killed
By Yasuke the Black Samurai.
Cursed by Americans who didn’t like Abu Bakr,
The man who landed in America before Columbus.
Cursed by the world out of envy
For being a descendant of the richest man who ever lived: King Mansa Musa.
Melanin and kinky hair
Is the mark they give to the God-like,
To people who look like the Black Madonna
The mark of the builders of the Pyramids, the Great Wall of Benin
And Timbuktu.
© Romeo Zulu. Quote a line with his name and a link; ask before reprinting the whole poem.