o you thought you were alone
didn’t you?
well, i am also here
ebony-black
and straight out of the kopjes

dotting the afrikan skyline
perched on those savanna grasslands

above the rolling serorome valley
a beautiful landscape indeed
at once familiar to you
and me
for as in the scripture:
‘in zion it shall be said
that this man
and that man
were born here’
and yet still
i’m wondering
baffled
and just as confused
as you are
for I’m completely taken aback
by those outrageous claims of essentialism
and cultural ethnocentrism
amid this simmering social and cultural cauldron
a hotch-potch of varied rituals and practices
and a people wrapped in everything from outlandish medieval costumes
kimpy leather thongs
bikini briefs

mini skirts

and stomach-outs

let alone those sagging pants
of youths in boxer shorts
and american baseball caps

all of which we all just nonchalantly refer to
as ‘our way of life’
as if cast in stone
but it could be time you smell the coffee beans, mate!

© by kagiso dubla senthufhe