YOU ARE THE SUN
Written by Ursula Nyaboke Gisemba Performed by Mumbi Kaigwa
You are the sun. Where are you running to? mother asked. Deeply concerned as we darted to hide under the shade.
A shield from the sun?
The cracks on our skin, she said, are a celebration of life.
She could never understand the pride garnered from polished clay pot faces. In her heydays, every mark told a story. Laughter and tears amongst her sisters. A household feared and frowned upon when men came to pick wives. Laughing behind grandmother’ s back, tattooing their arms and legs with memories.
The sweetest fruits have spots, she’ d say.
Let the sun burn, run in the wild, dance with the bees, pet the cubs, fight the hyenas. Be a girl of the savannah, drink with the elephants, swim with the hippos,
SONG: Voices Are Powerful Leahann“ Lafemmebear” Mitchell