By Laetitia Dossou FOR MY PEOPLE

For my people who toiled under the scorching sun; For my people whose knees were humbly bent; For my people whose feet are cracked and hands rough;

For my people from the sand dunes of the Sahara to the Cape of Good Hope; For my people from the coast of Senegal to the Horn of Africa; For my people who were enslaved for centuries;

For my people who endured cruelty; For my people who paraded naked with whip marks on their bodies;

For the women who bore the fruits of their wombs in darkness; For the men shackled and tied down as the phantom of our past mocked us; For the boys and girls who were denied life and died brutally;

For my people who were deceived; For my people trying to create their own dreams; For my people suffering to find themselves in this harsh world;

For my brothers and sisters of generations past, present, and future; For my people so close to their dreams yet so far away;

May we rise! May a new page be turned in our history! May we stand united and may our generation be a peaceful, forgiving one! May this resound in our eras!

This is for my people.

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