Free Your Hair Amaka

Chelsea Nahai Awang
@chelseaawang911330
3 months ago

Free Your Hair Amaka
By Chelsea Nahai Awang

She debated modern slavery with me
with her defeated hair dangling by her ears
To untangle Africa's chains- I say,
'Nne, you must let you hair be tangled'

Who lied to Amaka? whose hot iron comb
burned her ear in stretching her hair?
Africa carries trauma
On the smokey scalps of her maidens
What once was worn as a crown
Braided, woven like warp, twisted like weft
Into poetry on the head of a black girl,
is defeated by a medieval torture device,
is now fallen from grace.
Tell me Amaka, do you not see
your limp, straight hair does not suit your face?
How many more times must you brush
Before you wash away your coily mane?

Nne, I will not judge you from afar
You are as much a victim as me
Of this modern slavery
Sit between my thighs
And as you sing me songs of scissors', oils and clippers
I will spin your hair into plaited gold

#Poetry
#AfricaUnchained
#UntangleAfrica
#PlayMyPart



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