My heart is one with Africa's

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  Perhaps my heart is one with Africa's and just as delicate an object as its wildlife at night, In the exuberant loudness of silence, I feel the eradicated grounds shake and see polluted minds fight, because poverty is the reason for all the violence

  My heart beats with Africa's and my soul bleeds, with each passing spirit of its AIDS victims running to heaven to forget earth's painful deeds, and like one of the forgotten heroes of history, in luminous places, my face glows and reflects all colours of Africa's races

  From the falls of Victoria to the top of the Drankensberg mountains, From the deserted deserts of the Sahara to the never weeping skies of the Kalahari, From the cradle of humankind known as the Magaliesberg mountains to the British crown colony known then as the Bechuanaland, my footprints are marked as rare diamonds on Africa's soils

  Because my heart is one with Africa's the mere blood flowing in my veins, sacred like the waters flowing in Africa's streams, and with each sunset at dawn I see Africa's golden smile of unity in my dreams, like its dried out open fields where the green grass gets destroyed by fire, and shepherds swains have to run for their lives, with each tear drop falling to the ground, just like Africa peace will be my endless desire

  And like Satan, one of the fallen angels who used to sit beside God, I used to be filled with shame every time I thought of Africa but now in joy I trot, with endless pride every time I hear in an echo the name of Africa and with each tick and tock of the inevitable passing time, for generations to come my heart will be bonded and one with Africa's and proof being this unforgettable, perpetual rhyme.

  By Rochester Tebogo Letwaba (South Africa )

  picture: www.facebook.com/afrofutures.