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AFRICA WILL LIVE!

I remember sharing a piece about the Africa we so desire. Little did I know that in exactly a year from then, unarmed civilians would be slaughtered like rats to a mouse trap. I was told of all the wrongs they did in textbooks; the human sacrifices and brutalities. The bloodsheds and the gun downs, I was told that massacre equals power and that is the only way to silence the weak. “It’s quicker than reasoning!” they say.. That could have been me. That could have been my brother. That could have been me. That could have been my sister, shot in cold blood yet unarmed.

 Once we stood head high, chest out, singing to a flag held in pride, with words written in tar and toil. Now we stand near these same flags faced down, wounded, and ashamed of who we have become. Of what we have become. These are the monsters we made! I lost a friend to this fight. He left an unborn child to a bullet. Wished the bullet had waited two more months so he could hear the first cry of his son, Olamide. He had a name. His father did too. They all did.

 What I’ve learnt from the ocean

Hard to dance and rejoice in the motion

Let the sun have its moment

The moon will come

What I’ve learnt from a soldier

Every man is a son to a daughter

And we only remember

When we see the blood

- Jacob banks, Slow Up

 

They never remembered. They never thought to remember. Maybe the blood spills weren’t colourful enough to spark a thought.. “Your father was a good man..” A classic line of consolation. “.. He died for a noble cause” the second verse of pity. 

We will rise! We will rise big! Africa will live! This is just the beginning of a revolution and has began with Nigeria. We've lost friends and loved ones. We’ve lost relatives too. To them who stood with us. To them who fell victim of police and military brutality, we stand with you. In every tongue across the African continent, we stand by you. For our generation and the next, Africa will live! 



  

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