Listen to it: http://media.cbc.ca:8080/ramgen/radio/columns/commentary/real/02-02-28-commentary.rm
*CBC Host Introduction:
February is Black History month. Today on Commentary, Montreal writer Nah-ee-lah performs a poem about a runaway slave named Mary Gold. She wrote the poem after coming across an ad for Mary Gold. Nah-ee-lah says her story is important in understanding what life is like for black people today. *
***Nah-ee-lah:
sept 25 1779 run away slave orange river plantation, a creole negro woman named
mary gold
she was seen about two months ago at port-henderson big with child, whoever harbours her, will be prosecuted according to law, but whoever apprehends her and will give information to walter pollock shall be handsomely rewarded
come run away wit me, u’ll be safe wit me come run away wit me marigold
mary u’ve been running for centuries from one plantation to another and u still haven’t escaped bible belt whipping post to 2k2 married single mother washing feet, washing floors, washing out belly womb washing big white lies deep into ur psyche ur ugly ur ugly mary is ugly gold one of africa’s many richess and so madness dressed in light and dark skin stole sold u into bottomless ships to be shipped branded bloodied and raped sealed into a new world democratic capitalistic fate where u’d be taught that in heaven u’d free at last but on earth last to be freed from mental slavery come run away wit me u’ll be safe wit me come run away wit me mary gold
mary born in nigeria, into yoruba born & named folayan meaning to walk with dignity but inna dis ya times yuh naw hav no time fi walk yuh haffi run mary run but tan, hol on, how come u can’t just walk pass di gates a orange river plantation stroll into the new millenium where laws have been passed to stop discrimination and big industries built, they call it job creation making stickers, pins, posters and commercials chanting end racism, sexism & homophobia so new best friends are black feminists dykes as left wing liberal whites try to ease guilty consciences
i only one want eye so i can’t see behind each pale lie one eye so i can raise my fist is black power the answer? one eye so i can read bible and qu’ran is that salvation? one eye so i can chant jah rastafari and not question one eye so i can pray to each orixia what about their catholic sisters? one eye so i can focus in this world of hocus pocus
i need to ease this mental pain i’m bearing from salvador to sao paolo san jose to tomorrow it’s the same **** darker complexions across the globe eat the same **** no matter which ship we were thrown off of to land here i want to hear what’s left of the truth
the truth? is that we’re still slaving centuries later we’re still slaving just bowing down to a different massa this one made of paper and maybe today i’d turn u in too mary big wit child shakle u to my self hate and give the key to ur master let them string u up and beat the spirit out of u watch them break u so i might not be broken and with my reward i’d build a fortress out of glass and pray it didn’t shatter from my reflection free at last