A Poem To African Men

I want to know when did you lose your peace?

How long have you been wondering on the streets?

Because it really seems like you've lost all sense of your true being.

What is your true meaning?

It seems like you've become some sort of monster

Devouring everything that comes in your direction

Whether it's your mothers, daughters, nephews, money and dignity

It seems like all you aim to achieve is satisfying your egos and greed.

When was it when your soul got destroyed?

Was it when your land got stripped away from you

Kuthiwa ubuhle bendoda izinkomo zayo kodwa nalokho banipuca kona

I'm guessing that you were left feeling pretty empty

Displaced.

I guess it might have been that train ride from Emakhaya to Egoli when everything slipped away

Maybe your black consciousness found a way to moonwalk out of its conscience

I know that those people found a way to tap into your psyche

Side kicking who you truly were

They told you to pray to the almighty

But I guess they took away your all mighty being,

African man

Did your anger start shaking when they started calling you a Black man

When you became nothing more than a colour

A political statistic

Just another pawn in their evil game.

I know they undressed you, dehumanized your being

I know it was hard to love yourself once you felt like your manhood was stripped away.

African man, please talk to me because I'm trying to understand.

Because now you treat me like a Black women,

Nothing more than an object to fill up the empty spaces in your grieving soul.

I've become a headline

Just another name lost

Another girl shot.

I know you're hurt

But I cannot help you if you still continue to hurt others

And hurt yourself.

Wemadoda sabelani.