Brown Africa


My red blood
pure red blood of a human
when it spills
as a drop of blue sweat
you collect it
in the furrows of your soft cupped palms
when I try to snort away that sweat
redolent with labour
you humiliate and distance me
Have the nerve to meet my eyes priest!
I am the twentieth century's "untouchable"!
the brown Africa of this round rock
I claim justice/I claim freedom.

The smell of my forge is in your temple idol
the smell of my sweat in the pan
on your hearth's tripod
Have the nerve to meet my eyes pious one.
either roast my existence in red hot embers
and have the nerve to uphold dharma
or rip up the learned pages that humiliate me
and have the courage to set them ablaze
I am the Kami* who made the god of your temple
the brown Africa of this round rock

Sniff the clean floor of your dwelling
the smell of my blood
is in the very flesh of your abode
Have the nerve to meet my eyes clean one!
either fill my red veins with water
or clean the filth from your mind
I am the Chyaame* who scoops dirt from your dwelling
the brown Africa of this round rock

Tear open the pleasure sacs in your mind
there the sweet rustle of my music is heard
Have the nerve to meet my eyes conscious one!
either have the guts to tie me with the beast
and feed me grass
or have the courage to make yourself
different from the beasts
I am the Gaine*, the Baadi* who bows the fiddle, beats the drum!
the brown Africa of this round rock.

Take the pulse of my life
thrust into earth's crust
there a watering hole of my tears is found
Have the nerve to meet my eyes glutted one!
either have the guts to say
the smell of my tears is not in your food
or have the courage to respect my dalit* life
I am the Musahar* serf who swims through earth along with your bull
the brown Africa of this round rock

From the shoe on your foot
to the cap on your head
from the farthest horizon of your vision
to the rhythm of your heart
Am I nowhere? I am everywhere.
How can you make me "untouchable" touchable one?
either have the nerve to stand in history's witness box
or have the courage to change yourself
Have the nerve to meet my eyes priest!
I am the twentieth century's "untouchable"!
the brown Africa of this round rock.
I claim the accounting of humiliated history
At any cost I claim freedom.

*Kami, Chyaame, Gaine, Baadi, and Musahar are among the dalit peoples declared "untouchable" by the Hindu caste system, each assigned an occupation considered demeaning and polluting by so-called "high" castes.