Brown Africa by Aahuti
15 Jun 2023Brown Africa by Aahuti
(This poem was first published in Nepali as “Gahungoro Africa” in Mulaykan magazine in 2051 B.S. and also includied as the opening section in Aahuti’s 2010 A.D. book Nepalma Varna Vyavastha ra Varga-Sangharsha)
My red blood
Holy human blood
When it trickles becoming blue sweat beads
You collect them forming bunds in your delicate cupped hands
When I try to smell the fragrance of that labor
You humiliate me and keep me away
Dare to meet my gaze, priest
I am an ‘untouchable’ of 20th century!
A brown Africa in this round geography!
I want justice
I want freedom!
Your temple’s sculpture smells of my smithy,
Karahi on your trivet smells of my sweat
Dare to meet my gaze, pious man!
Either dare to smolder my existence and maintain your religion
Or have courage to tear or burn the pages of scriptures that humiliate me
I am a blacksmith who made the god of your temple
A brown Africa in this round geography!
Sniff the clean floor of your settlement
Each piece of your settlement smells of my blood
Dare to meet my gaze, clean man!
Either dare to fill water in my blood veins
Or have courage to clean the garbage of your brain
I am a Chyame who collects garbage of your settlement!
A brown Africa in this round geography!
Tear the entertained glands of your mind
Where is heard the melodic susurration of my music
Dare to meet my gaze, a conscious man!
Either dare to leash me with animals and feed me grass
Or have courage to differentiate yourself from the animals
I am a Gaine, a Badi who bows sarangi and plays madal.
A brown Africa in this round geography!
Feel my life sunken in soil
Where is found a pool of my tears
Dare to meet my gaze a satiated man!
Either dare say that your morsel doesn’t smell of my tear
Or have courage to respect my Dalit life
I am a Musahar ploughman who swims in soil with your oxen!
A brown Africa in this round geography!
From the shoes at your feet to the cap on your head
From distant horizon of your vision to your heart beats
Where am I not? I am everywhere!
How can you make me ‘untouchable,’ ‘touchable’ man?
Either dare to stand at the witness box of the history
Or have courage to change yourself
Dare to meet my gaze, priest!
I am a 20th century ‘untouchable’!
A brown Africa in this round geography!
I want the account of my humiliated history
I want freedom at any costs!
(Translator: Sarbagya Kafle, June 15, 2023, 11.00 pm)