• 1,135 Abibisika (Black Gold) Points

      Greetings, re-membering a poem by Claude McKay …..” If we must die, let it not be like hogs
      Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, Making their mock at our accursed lot.
      If we must die, let it not be like hogs
      So that our precious blood may not be shed in vain; then even the monsters we defy shall be constrained to honor us, though dead!
      Oh kinsman! We must meet the common foe;
      Though far outnumbered, let us still be brave,
      And for their thousand blows deal One deathblow!
      What though before us lies the open grave?
      Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
      Pressed to the wall, dying, but……….fighting back!

      • I do remember that poem. Very apt.
          • Nana Amos N. Wilson: The Battle Must Be Joined!!!
            No nation, no civilization has come to the fore
            Without new organization
            Without thinking new thoughts
            Without working
            Without actually doing
            Without being willing to take a chance
            A willingness to risk all
            Without a willingness to go against overwhelming odds
            Without a determination to be the best, to be superior
            Without a desire to determine its destiny and that of others
            Without a willingness to fight, to shed blood, to risk defeat
            The battle must be joined…
            It must be fought
            Be it a battle of the mind, mind wars of spirit,
            Of will, of bucks, of iron and steel, shell and bomb,
            Of tank and plane, of rockets and satellite star wars,
            Of technology, of information
            The battle must be fought
            The gauntlet thrown down
            The chip knocked from the bully’s shoulder
            The lines stepped over The clash and clang of sword curses of men, moans of pain
            The battle must be joined…
            Fought in the street from door to door
            In the school room, in the boardroom
            In the bedroom, in the war room
            Hand to hand combat must commence
            The battle must be ultimately won in the field
            It matters not if you can eruditely delineate the subtleties and nuances of racism, and racial discrimination
            If you can delicately dissect with a master surgeon’s skill the anatomy of race and the body politic
            If you can tease out the tiniest thread
            If you can paint the most beautiful dream on canvas
            And write the greatest vision on parchment
            Or ride in your time machine and visit ancient African kingdoms, cities, and empires
            Or feel the pain and degradation of slavery
            Or celebrate all we have given to the world
            Or point out with great exclamation the white Devil
            Still the challenge must be taken up
            Fire must fight fire
            Institutions, traditions, habits, hopes must be uprooted,
            Razed and put to the torch
            No stone left unturned
            And institutions, traditions, habits, hopes must be restored, rekindled or built anew
            Bricks stacked in place
            New songs must be sung New voices must carry the tune
            New feet must march to new drumbeats
            New hands, new banners and standards raised
            These songs must be your songs
            The voices your voices, the feet your feet
            The hands must be the ones at the ends of your arms
            The soul unsold to the devil must be your soul
            A new world must be created
            Make it your world.
            Amandla!