Tags
1976 soweto riots, africa, african national congress, african union, afro, america, apartheid, bheki mlangeni, biko, black panthers, black power, civil rights, corporate prisons, dirk coetzee, dollar, dona richards, floyd mayweather, frank talk, freedom, g.o.a.t, galaxy, kareem abdul jabaar, kobe bryant, malcolm x, michael jordan, muhammad ali, ostrich, parcel bomb, sankara, solomon mahlangu, tiger woods
If I sang you a song
A song from your hymn book
Wrote mindless lyrics
A summer anthem
Pretended all was well
Became an ostrich
Like the rest of you
A parrot of the status quo
Aped mainstream society
You’d love me
Throw panties on stage
Download my music
Purchase my books
Follow me on social media
Stay glued to my reality show
Lucky me
If I learnt to shut up
Grew big fat ass
Entertained plastic surgery
Bleached my beautiful Nubian skin
Danced like I was on the moon
Altered my mind set
Betrayed my conscience like rap
I’d be a star
Walk the red carpet
Pity I am not interested
So keep your façade
For I am a child of hip hop
A movement of consciousness
Reaching out to a glorious history
Toiling for a greater future
Cos my red carpet is a glorious path
Colored with the blood of loud mouths like myself
People who chose to speak their minds
Educated niggers
Smart natives
Who irked the comfort of the powers that be
Died for the cause
Maybe they’ll send me to the gallows
Like Solomon Mahlangu
Send me a parcel bomb
Like Bheki Mlangeni
Or a drive-by
Hit me on the drive way like Medgar Evers
Or I could fall at the hands of a Judas
Like Sankara
Malcolm
Cos they always get one of us to get to us
If you sell out
How much is the price of your conscience
Just enough to buy you pseudo comfort
Tell them to pay you in gold bars
Cos the Dollar is paper money
Tell them I’ll be waiting my turn
Doing my best to meet that fateful day
When it’s my turn to water the tree of freedom
Like too many to mention
People whose names were written on bullets
Better to die a better man
Like Sobukwe
Cos when I look at Tiger
Jordan, Kobe
Mr Money himself
I see a dearth in talent
Better to be enslaved against your will
Some are slaves of the almighty dollar
Investing in the enslavement of their people
I yearn for the greatest of all time
Abdul Kareem Jabaar, Muhammad Ali
Superstars from another galaxy
Icons who left a legacy
Champions of our struggle
Who never forgot their people on their way up
Principles have no price
knox mahlaba
Author – Back From The Dead: The Rising of an African Spirit
Copyright © 2015
