Black Heritage Month [Feature]

Editors Note: To kick off Black Heritage Month, the Trent African Caribbean Student Union (TACSU) organized a powerful photo series. This series portrays strong messages and personal perseverance regarding race and personal experiences in relation to race. Our feature for Issue 15 showcased this photo series, and featured a poem by Daisy Komujuni. We will continue the dialogue surrounding Black Heritage Month, and encourage you to submit. All submissions go to editors@trentarthur.ca

Black History

They turned the history of empires into a footnote

About what they took they wrote

About what we gave they never spoke

I was taught to believe that the contribution

of those who looked like me was negligible

Our language, unintelligible

which is why they cut out my mother’s tongue

and shoved theirs down my throat

I was told they shrunk our history down

to a “shipment” on a boat

But I still remember

I remember how the French held their breath

as they faced Samore Toure

The air was heavy with the scent of glory

A smell like heavy copper and red soil

Miles away

This fertile soil split open birthing the Zulu warriors

to strike fear into the hearts of the British

and later the Mau Mau made them skittish

While Haile Selassie maintained his throne

I remember

how when we banded together

we brought an empire to it’s knees

these memories are written in blood and will never cease

even if you corrupt our psychology

drain our economy

degrade us socially

reduce us to a tab in your pornography

we will never forget our true black history

-Daisy Komujuni