I Am African 2

    

     "Monkey! Come here now!" master called me and brought me back to reality. I ran quickly to meet him. "Bend your black disgusting self. I want to place my legs on something." he said. You see what I mean? We are cursed! I bend for him. In the distance, I see my friend, Gugulethu. He is held on his two hands and legs by chains and he is tied tightly directly under the sun. His master is using the hot rod to flog him on the back. His back is peeling. Oh, Gugulethu! I shake my head, forgetting that master's legs were on me and he turns and uses the beating stick to slap me across the face. He never touches me with his hands. No! He said it would kill him if his hands ever touched me as I looked like the devil. My face hurts but I cannot touch it. I want to cry but, that means calling for trouble. "You people with black skin are no humans. You are aliens and should be treated as such. You disgust me" my master always said. He said it was a reminder so I dont go about thinking I am human. Black is a curse!

    We are made to cut grasses and even eat uproot them with our teeth when or hands hurt. One man to one plantation working all day under the hot sun. We wash everything and do everything. But, we are not humans. Sometimes, we are called out and beaten because we are black. Other times, we are made to come out in our number, stand in front of the masters and their lady loves and then ordered to do stupid things like licking the long cord that sticks out from my leg. I do not yet know what that cord is doing there and I am sure the white men do not have it. No wonder we are called aliens and monkeys and devils. Whatever that means. Did I tell you we do not put on clothes? Never! I cannot even remember what it feels like to put on clothes.

    I am black. They say we are Africans. We are disgusting people and we are aliens. But, we are very strong people. We do not fall sick like the white people. We are amazing aliens. We do not cmplain and we do not even die. I however await the day all of us will go back to the alien land from which we came from. I miss mama. Papa was shot the day I was taken away because he struggled and didnt want his son to be taken away. I miss Ropafadco, my baby brother. I miss my only sister, Nkosi. I want to go home. I want to wear clothes. I want to ask mama why I am black. I want to know how old I am. I want to know what that long cord is. I want to...

And my name? its Kudakwashe.