Africa Yethu! (Our Africa)

A Poem for Africa Day

Africa Yethu!
Today we rise.
Set our Africa, bold and free.
From the vibrant souks of Marrakech,
To the teeming heritage of Eswatini,
The heart of the continent pulses,
Drum-deep, earth-strong, alive.

Peace -Amani, Ubumwe, Sulh, Kagiso -
Let it flow like the Nile, across our nations,
Binding us not in borders, but in breath.

In Wolof, we remember,
In Amharic, we dream,
In Igbo, we speak our names with pride,
A thousand tongues, one rhythm, Africa.

Africa Yethu!
Where sun beats down on copper soil,
And children chase kites in the wind of tomorrow.
From the golden dunes of Sudan,
To the emerald hills of Rwanda,
We rise, stitched in song, wrapped in memory.

From the highlands of Ethiopia, where coffee first bloomed,
To the gold-streaked coast of Ghana, where memory looms,
Children dance to the djembe, futures in their eyes,
Africa Yethu! under limitless skies.

Our chants and open hearts meet you in our lands,
Sawubona, Mauya, Dumela, Salibonani, Sannu-
Greetings in every tongue,
Welcoming the world to Africa’s song.

Before the lines were drawn in foreign ink,
We were one, through trade, through tongue, through sacred link.
No wall between the drumbeat and the dance,
No border in a baobab’s ancient stance.
So now we call, not to erase, but to begin,
To stitch the map where kin meets kin.
Africa Yethu! as it was, and still can be,
One people, one soul, one destiny.