Africa’s most precious resource is not its gold, diamonds, or oil – it’s its youth.
Poems selected by Alex Gwaze (Curator)
Africa’s youth are not just the future – they’re the present. They’re the rebels who refuse to be silenced, the dreamers who dare to imagine, and the catalysts of a prosperous culture. This Africa Day, we celebrate the vibrant spirit and boundless potential of Africa’s children and youth, who make up 60% of the continent’s population. From the streets of Gaborone to the townships of Johannesburg, these innovators and change-makers will reshape our stories by reconnecting with their African heritage and uniting against the narratives that have silenced and marginalized our voices for too long.
Rain Dark Child Rain
BY SCRAH MDALA
Zimbabwean writer, educator & poet who won the best Production award for “1894: the Musical” (Jika RSA), Stop to Start International writing contest winner, & writer of “Behind Closed Doors” (Zimbabwe’s first R rated play)
What words would you like to hear?
This mouth utters bullets, fears, and nightmares,
Yet motivating me to tell untold tales.
I say this to you,
child of the soil, in toil,
Dear dark child of the rain,
in pain without gain,
The clear child of the snow, only answers yes or no.
So I, you, we must,
stand on this platform to inform, not perform,
To bring reform, for Africa to heal,
Some leaders don’t feel pain,
They watch children turn like a wheel, on the same spot, killed by zeal and ill manners.
So rise Africa rise, rise black mask children of the soil rise,
shed hesitation in your eyes, demand attention,
communication brings salvation, not vexation.
Since time immemorial, black has been seen as darkness, viewed as absence, ugliness, for hundreds of years, but today, black rises against the snow, to make it rain again!
Children of the Sun
BY THATO ANGELA CHUMA
Motswana writer, singer, curator, poet & founder of Bold Poetry Sessions. Her poems have been published in Strange Horizons(US), Brittle Paper(UK), Words Dance Publishing, The Machinery (India), & more
With stars in our eyes
We are rising, learning to wear our dreams
Dressing them with fire that sparks in our bellies
A fire that says, “our time has come”
We cannot be erased
Weaving new stories of becoming
Tales of surviving the unsurvivable
With smiles untouched and spirit intact
Children of the sun
Skin glistening and burning with hope
Holding strength in our mouths
We are the prayers of those who stood before us
Brewing the gifts of our cultures
Carrying possibilities in our spines
A new scent in our breath
Our future is here, our path now open
Twirling like sunrise
No longer swallowed by our past
Our truth was hidden, buried in shame
But it rises with us, we are not afraid
Standing in our beauty,
Waking us from our sleep, we are here
Building dreams of our forefathers, living them
Here, thriving in uncommon ways
Collaborating, releasing man-made divisions
Healing, seeing visions in full colour, prospering
Freeing ourselves from all that’s not us
Becoming we in this is the era
A golden time, meeting our greatness
May we rise and meet our future, it has come.
Children Will Dream Of You
BY INNOCENT KATSACHE
Malawian poet, playwright (TV, Radio & Stage), filmmaker, writer of the long-running play “Leaders at Crossroads,” & co-writer of the film, “Dear Pen pal” (shown on DSTV). He is popularly known as Inno Katz
Oh sweet soul,
adorned with names unheard,
Your beauty is unfathomable,
a wonder to behold.
Your golden eyes sparkle like stars in my mind’s lake.
When you smile I flicker deep down in my spine.
I see you, your round nose, your curvy contours, your rich crown.
You are my paradise,
the one and only,
You who elegantly hosted the first man and woman.
Our children will dream of you.
When they wake to walk the talk, your children will change the world,
when they sing your voice will echo magnificent and wild.
You who have been endowed with beauty and wisdom,
They say your kham empowers you,
Some say your umunthu,
Some say it’s your splashes of warm amber.
Don’t hide my darling,
reveal yourself to your children,
emancipate them with the realities of your rivers, wildlife, and deserts.
Awaken Africa!
Let your children dream,
your mystery will kill them.
Mama Loves You
BY ZINTLE ZUMA
South African poet, researcher, and dreamer with a passion for elevating indigenous languages, onomastics, forensic linguistics, and community development through intellectual curiosity and creative expression.
on a late bus from work,
missed call … mother was …
her heart skipped a number of beats!
she called back, was told to hold,
and she keeps quiet,
this child I am talking to you!
Instantly from the pits of her hollow cold stomach, the mess in her head,
she has to scramble to fathom logic.
21, a child still too young,
at 41 she still believed she wouldn’t be old enough still,
her loss is not just her loss,
out there on the countless faces of ‘family’,
she hears the chorus say –
‘what are we going to do?!
We the children of the soil have lost mama.
Our rivers have been fenced,
our names have been changed,
we are walking aimlessly with a multilayered scar, disconnected from the sun.
But we are not alone!
To those that were loved and lost,
those that suffered, still suffer but chose to live!
Look to your brothers, look to your sisters,
stay strong mighty child!
Africa is with you!
Mama loves you!
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Cover image: photography Raphael Pavarotti, styling Ib Kamara.