The missing word in your vocabulary

You told me to hate them

They captured our forefathers, you said
And took away our women, beautiful women
You emphasise on beauty as if you knew them
And the cattle, a man's worth, you said

You said they annihilated us
Robbed us of a land that was rightfully ours
You said, hate them. They are pigs
They deserve not your affection
You said, and I almost listened

You washed our brains when we were young
Using big words like Genocide, Massacre
Slavery, Crimes to humanity
But there was a word missing in your vocabulary

Love.

Peace.

Forgiveness.

Co-existance

You did not teach me that
I learnt it when I drank from the same gourd
With he that you taught me to hate
When I spoke a different language
When I learnt a new culture
I learnt this new word

Love

When you sent me to learn their ways
To hate them, yet steal their machinations
Life taught me another word

Forgiveness

When all the hatred you planted in me
Clouded my ability to live with others
A new sun shone on me

Co-existance

You did not tell me this
That your vocabulary needed updating
That he who never travels
Always claims his mother cooks best
This, and more
You did not teach me
While you were busy planting hatred
In my fragile mind

Pardon Gwara, (Zimbabwe)

Picture credits: 

https://www.google.co.zw