You suddenly came without an introduction,
You settled on my land and built houses,
Schools, centers, institutions, you constructed,
You reformed everything, now my neighbor doesn’t know where her house is.
You changed our street names,
Our buildings and villages,
You spread your false claims,
You reformed everything, now my neighbor doesn’t know where her village is.
You claimed that we are uncivilized,
You stole our customs and our culture,
Your presence, you solidified,
You reformed everything, now my neighbor doesn’t know where her culture is.
To all those who say that colonialism ended,
How are you not aware that its not a mere event,
That passed and suspended,
It’s a structure that still torments the present.
Countries like Palestine are not even officially independent, yet,
That doesn’t mean that the rest of the countries are post-colonial,
How can we say that when the superpowers consider us part of a chess set,
We are states ruled by international policies, we are neo-colonial.
You reformed our culture and our heritage,
Our language, our religion, and our music,
The education you gave us was basically a sedative,
Which made us internalize the notion that we’re inferior, although we’re all human.
Things fell apart when you came,
However, you should know, that we are not tamed.
I wrote this poem after reading Chinua Achebe’s, short novel, “Things Fall Apart”, as well as some parts of a couple of other readings like Patrick Wolfe’s “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the native”, and Ania Loomba’s “Defining the terms: Colonialism, Imperialism, Neo-Colonialism, Post-colonialism.” This poem is basically a combination of those readings, which I found very interesting.
Wow Jehad! This was truly eye-opening. I imagined every single sentence you wrote and how well structured it was. It is truly sad to believe that we have been reformed, especially when they make us think we are inferior and use us as pawns in a part of their game. However, I do believe in our power and unity, despite the blindness that people of power reached to nowadays.
I am absolutely in love with this poem, Jehad! Very powerful and inspiring! I love how you merged several themes and concepts from different readings into one well-structured and meaningful poem! Referring to the colonized as your neighbor implies that the agony is ONE. Even though your country may not have experienced colonialism, colonizing the neighboring countries such as Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine executes the same impact on you as it does on them. We will raise back from the ashes and hopefully gain back our power from the oppressor!
I love this poem Jehad! There is a great flow and structure. You use the clear and vivid language to tell what colonialism brings. I feel the title is really interesting that “to past and present colonizers”. I am curious about whether you will have any different messages to them?
Absolutely beautiful poem Jiji, it’s very touching! It’s interesting to think about the impact of settler colonialism and how it aims to bury all traces of existence of other communities prior to the arrival of the colonizers. Also, I love the 7andala background picture of your website hahaa