SOWETO

They look into our eyes and burn our places and call us inferior of the two races

So where to?
They put us in uniforms of black and white – black closer to the earth to gather dust and white to the sky because indeed they claim to be above us

So where to?
They separate us from our children so we cannot teach them the ways of the Zulu

So where to?
They slaughtered my parents in front of me so I would fear them but my parents didn't fear death so I knew in my time, I wouldn't fear the white man or death but that I would be without my family

So where to?
They substituted my freedom with the labour and suffering of building their kingdom

So where to?
They slay and imprisoned the bold from 27 years to life; the dismay of a wife

So where to?
They took our homes from us and we asked so where to again as running became our home

So where to?
They chose life and death for us
So where to?
They built walls of Jericho on our self esteem and our colour started to fade through bleaching as black was inferior

So where to?
They called as pigs and filth but took our women in the night

So where to?
Fear was in my pupils; both in my eyes and in my students for the math they learnt would calculate no money in future

So where to?
We knew not day or night for darkness was upon us all our lives

So where to?
We were prisoners of life sentence but with no crime to atone for this – but the colour of our skin –Black

So where to?
Our being was a taboo and hence we were forbidden to and from anything good

So where to?
Scars, memories and every reminder of the apartheid brought a tear and heartbreak

So where to?
We have come this far
Just to find out who we are
We give up running for there is nowhere to run to anymore

Every day of my 23 years, I've asked, so where to?
So this place I find myself now
It's not that I have given up or lost hope
It's the end of running away
So I'll call it Soweto

Copyright (c) Aubrey Aidoo 2009

Visit www.iwritegh.orgfor more Ghanaian poems

Author: Aubrey Aidoo

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