interwoven veins, crisscross these lands,

savannahs,
deserts,
forests,

lakes,

streaming through the people of this continent,

this continent of our ancestors,

linking the north to the south,
east to the west,

veins with hope alive,
infusing life,

red blood thumping through,

silently,

binding our peoples,

wrapped beneath the canopies of the humid forests,

buzzing with life in the cacophony of the bustling cities,

silent in the arid deserts,

amidst the shifting sands of the dunes,

meandering between the mangroves,

teasing the weeping willows swaying in the wind,

these lakes,
waters,

subterranean rivers flowing gracefully into the oceans,

breathe new life to the plains,

at one with the sea.

The veins of Africa,

knit us as one,

despite the cruel slashing of these arteries,

the plunder of land,

the desecration of the peace of the ancestors,

tearing these veins open,

pilfering the continent’s innards,

gold,
silver,
copper,
platinum and diamonds and coltan,

so much more painful to the millions of living souls,

herded as cattle, packed onto those grotesque slave ships,

doomed to live and die in shackled misery,

on continents far away,

bearing the raw horror of the whip,

the backbreaking slave labour in the belly of the beast of colonialism.

yes,

these veins have felt it all,

these veins that continually,

silently,

peacefully,

benevolently,

spread the precious gift of life across these lands,

our lands,

our continent,

Africa!