Mother Africa

© Ben Heine || Facebook || Twitter || www.benheine.com

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This is a traditional watercolor painting I made in 2008.

I intended to show how fertile the African continent is...

and how important women are.

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For more information about my art: info@benheine.com

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Strong Hands of Mother Africa

 

A poem by J. Joy “Sistah Joy” Matthews Alford

 

Strong hands of Mother Africa

Awaken places deep inside me

Where my ancestors dwell

Like distant echoes, your heart-beat

Reverberates off Kilimanjaro’s mountain-tops

Pulses down the Nile

Crosses the Sudan

And flows into my soul

 

Strong hands of Mother Africa

Call my absent spirit

To return and commune with the elders

Those who sojourned before me

Now light my path and

Await my homecoming

 

Strong hands of Mother Africa

Reveal to me my history

Teach me the ways of my true homeland;

Unmask the mysteries and tragedies

Of this altered consciousness

Awaken in my mind and body

The un-ripened seeds of truth,

Power, and pride

Solve for me the paradox of my mortality.

 

Strong hands of Mother Africa

My soul dances to your ancient rhythm

Pulsing, ever pulsing, through the veins of time

Teach me to beat Africa drums

So that I, too, may guide

Another absent spirit to your shores

So that I, too may guide another absent spirit

Home!

 

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The poem appeared on authorsden.com/

Done