Fellowship Feature - The Black Mother

"The Storyteller" - Thierry Lamare

❝ ​I am the Black girl that crossed the dark sea
Carrying in my body the seed of the Free
Now home on Native land
I am the woman who worked on the field
Bringing the cotton and the cane to yield 
I am the one who laboured as a slave
Beaten and mistreated for the work that I gave
Children sold away from me, husband auctioned off, mamas voided too
No safety, no love, no respect was I due
A prey to white violence, a slave to white lust
No value, low-priced
Back then I sucked salt and bit the dust
Four hundred years deep in the South
But God put a song and a prayer in my mouth 
God put a dream like a steel drum in my soul
Freedom gave fire to this body turned cold
Now, through my children, I'm watching the seed grow,
Post up like the Fruit,
Now, through my children, I'm hitting the goal.
Realize child the blessings denied to me
I couldn't read then, I couldn't write 
I had nothing back then, not even the night
Some days the road was hot with sun
But I had to keep on till my work was done
I had to keep on! No stopping for me--
I was the seed of the coming Free
I nourished and nursed the dream, the struggle 
That nothing can smother 
Deep in my breast-- 
The Black mother 
I had only one hope then, but now through you,
Black children of today, my wildest dreams must come true
All you dark children in the world today out there,
Remember my blood, my sweat, my tears 
Remember my years, heavy with sorrow-
And make of those years a torch for tomorrow.
Make of my past a road to the light,
A revolutionary path
Out of the darkness, the ignorance, the night. ❞

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Written by Zaakirah Rose