When the question of my identity
Comes up
I spare no time to SAY
I am Nigerian
And
Nobody gave me that identity
I come from an indigenous line of African giants
I am not called a giant for nothing
Even though the world hates my gut
That’s why it’s PR to SEE’OUR country
in ruin grow by the day
Who SAID’ed I have to buy the narrative?
My ancestor Chinua Achebe told me
“Nobody can teach me who I am.”
You can describe parts of me
But WHO I am
Is something I have to find out myself
So again!
I am Nigerian
And
Nobody gave me that identity
Am no slave to Colonialism Colour
Be-Cause
I bear the mind of geniuses
Who have walked the earth in their own RiGHT
They prayed and said
O God of Creation
'Help our Youths'
The TRUTH to know.
The Truth of Who they are
The Truth that they cannot take the stories
From the oppressor
The Truth that
THEY!
Can W-right their story
The truth which
They are now OBI-diently following
Causing the Agbado masters of oppression to quake
Because Truth dey choke!
The visions I see
Are
Happening right before your eyes
And You are a custodian to it
You have to
Say it in a song
Tweet it in a book
Sing it in history
Cry about it in the neighborhoods
For the visions I see
Are happening right here
Defining who you are
Right before history’s eyes
And when you find who you are
Don’t ever!
apologize
For being
Nigerian.
A Poem written and performed at the Jarding Reading Garden.
