Blackworld, V. 27, i. 02 - 19930223.pdf - The State University of New ...

0** ONE. NATION
I
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I
SISTA TA SISTA
I · I - · L, II _I I II _~ L _ I_ · _·
m
Greetings! all you Afrakan
women, my sistas and to you brothas as
well (a real Afrakan man knows that
whatever concerns his sistas too concerns
him.) Hetep all my people!
As the woman selected by the
Creator to be the womb through which
humanity came, I come to you. I come to
you as a woman born of Afrakan blood,
life, divine, force, and sweet tradition. As
a woman who recognizes and recalls her
ancestry, her history, as a woman who
icknowledges and embodies those powers
)f womanhood that are the legacy of the
indigenous female, I come to you. As a
woman with an understanding of the
creative forces and consequent curative
powers contained in my Afrakan womb, I
come to you.
I come to you as a woman who
was dragged from her native Afraka,
clinging to the ground, clutching the soil
to remember the sweet taste. I come to you
as a woman chained about the wrists,
ankles, the neck, as a woman held down
and rode by every slaver on the slave ship.
I cried in the indigenous tongue. I come to
you as that woman.
As a woman stolen from my
Afrakan self, my Afrakan man, my
Afrakan child, my
Afrakan god(s),
my Afrakan soil,
my Afrakan
language, my
Afrakan pride, my
Afraka, I come to
you. I could not
worship in the old
way or speak in the
old language. I
could not vote. I
could not hold
property. I could
v~n4- r-a M-k »t /l **