Journey Through Time - Poem

by Barbara
(UK)

Journey Through Time

by Barbara King

(In celebration of Emancipation)


In times of old we lived as kings and queens

Able to follow all our dreams

Africa was our beautiful land

Abundance in minerals were at hand


Our civilization was the finest

Great cities built would win any contest

There was trade of every kind

Art, culture from the intelligent mind


Starvation was on no-ones conscience

Africans travelled the sea

And traded with everybody

There were resources of every sort

To live well and trade spare at foreign ports.


Then for 200 years the West made an entrance

Giving a savage and brutal performance

Everything not screwed down was stolen

Their green eye turn craven for gold and diamond


So even screwed down minerals they drilled for

Stealing the people and making them poor

What a lament, What a lament

Even the devil must have shed a tear

What a lament, What a lament

Causing destruction, terror and fear


The story of Abolition is of a long battle

Africans fought back from being like cattle

Freedom came, sweet as wine

Freedom and equality as part of humankind


Yes we’ve come a long way

We’ve come a long way

We’ve come a long way from slavery day

Now when we work we have to get pay

And we don’t just sweep floor

And live like we poor


Africans have struggled and climbed the mountain again

Like in times of old with cultured civilization.