Love Letters to Baraka: I

Baraka,

You are going to have questions for mama

Yes, you were conceived in a year full of drama

The earth had never seen so much disease

We dreamed you up, an antidote to a virus

Where there was a lot more than the morning sickness to overcome

On foreign terrain, where your dad was born but not where he is from

You were the outcome of our love, a seed destined to sprout into a tree with roots deeper than the deepest seas, you will be born free

Your branches already reaching the furthest reaches of this universe,

Your history is rich- of kings and queens- kingdoms fallen, mine hardly standing- the weight of the past bearing on your floating shoulders- my prince, you are the echo of our ancestors stirred-

Tumaini our hope.

You have never been alone

Its no accident you will be born in the eye of the storm- your breath will be the rupture that fractures the cyclone

Baraka,

You’re going to have questions for mama

Received with open arms in a world full of borders, no sense of camaraderie, you will make your own territory, you will have no boundaries.

Airborne at the size of a cabbage, we barely had any baggage before you were born,

You travelled across the world from the sunny south of The Continent to the darkest depths of Europe’s winter where you will be born, not European

A lot of things about this time will be confusing but I’m sure you will find it amusing

We can already tell you’re perceptive, responsive and discerning. Keen to be seen.

They make it seem like times are changing, but history's only just rearranging,

Remember that its all just transitory

Your blood will always be nomadic, never static, Nilotic we move pragmatic

Your history is not romantic nor is it tragic, it’s a story of survival and you are the revival