Mbizo Chirasha

IDENTITY APPLES

I am a fat skeleton, resurrecting

from the sad memories of dada

and dark mysteries of animism

I am Buganda

I bleed hope

I drip the honey of fortune

Makerere; think tank of Africa

I dance with you wakimbizi dance

I am Tanganyika

I smell and fester with the smoke of African genesis

I am the beginning

Kilimanjaro; the anthill of rituals

I am the smile of Africa

My glee erase the deception of sadness

my tooth bling freedom

I am myself, I am Gambia

When others seep with bullets stuck in their stomachs

I sneeze copper spoons from my mouth every dawn

I am the Colombia of Africa

I am the Cinderella of Africa

Where mediums feast with the ghost of Kamuzu in Mulange trees

Here spirits walk naked and free

I am the land of sensations

I am the land of reactions

Coughing forex blues

Squander mania

I still smell the scent of Nehanda’s breath

I am African renaissance blooming

I stink the soot of Chimurenga

I am the mute laughter of Njelele hills

I am Soweto

Swallowed by Kwaito and gong

I am a decade of wrong and gong

I am the blister of freedom vomited from the belly of apartheid

I see the dawn of the coming sun in Madiba’s eyebrows

I am Abuja

Blast furnace of corruption

Nigeria, the Jerusalem of noblemen, priests, professors and prophets

I am Guinea, i bling with African floridirization

I am blessed with many tongues

My thighs washed by river Nile

I am the mystery of pyramids

I am the graffiti of Nefertiti

I am the rich breast of Nzinga

I am Switzerland of Africa

The rhythm of Kalahari sunset

the rhyme of Sahara, yapping, yelping

I am Damara, I am Herero, I am Nama, I am lozi, and I am Vambo

I am bitterness, I am sweetness

I am Liberia

I am king kongo

Mobutu roasted my diamonds into the stink of deep brown blisters

Frying daughters in corruption microwaves

Souls swallowed by the beat of Ndombolo and the wind of Rhumba

I am the Paris of Africa

I see my wounds

I am rhythm of beauty

I am Congo

I am Bantu

I am Jola

I am Mandinga

I sing of you

I sing Thixo

I sing of Ogun

I sing of God

I sing of Tshaka

I sing of Jesus

I sing of children

of Garangaja and Banyamulenge

whose sun is dozing in the mist of poverty

I am the ghost of Mombasa

I am the virginity of Nyanza

I am scarlet face of Mandingo

I am cherry lips of Buganda

Come Sankara, come Wagadugu

I am Msiri of Garangadze kingdom

my heart beats under rhythm of words and dance

I am the dead in the trees blowing with wind,

I cannot be deleted by civilization.

I am not Kaffir, I am not Khoisan

I am the sun breaking from the villages of the east with great

inspiration of revolutions

its fingers caressing the bloom of hibiscus

Liberation!

Bio: MBIZO CHIRASHA is a 2019 International Fellow of the International Human Rights Arts Festival New York (ihraf.org), a 2018 Recipient of Global Literary Influencer Certificate of Merit by Directorio Mundial de Escritores through Academia Mundial de Literatura, Historia, Arte y Cultura (http://directoriomundial.allimo.org/Mbizo-Chirasha/), and Vice President of POETS OF THE WORLD in Africa (poetasdelmundo.com).