This poem was read by federal deputy Janete Pietá at the end of the solemn session held in the Brazilian house of deputies to mark the 2009 International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on 30th march 2009.

WINGS TO FLY

They turned my brother against me
Gave him swords, muskets and canon.
Hands that ate with me the night before
Returned at dawn to maim, kill and capture.

Battered, bruised, bludgeoned and broken
So began the unending trek through time and space.
Shackles and manacles would eat through flesh
As the longing wait began for the dreaded ships

Escravos, Badagry, Elmina, Gorée.
Places near my home, yet so strange
And points of no return
Whence began the voyage across the sea.

The lands I would not see again
Receded slowly behind the rising sun.
Creaky wood, bizarre tongues and sounds of despair
Echoed through the smells of fear.

Skin scorched by the blazing sun and
Blistered by salty winds,
The stench of rotten flesh
Beckoned the sharks to feast their fill.

They stripped me of my dignity.
Layed me out on the docks of Charleston,
Of Pernambuco of Salvador and Kingston
Pigsties in hell, filled with wretched souls.

Four hundred years I was put down
With raw brute power of whips and guns
Beast of burden to work the fields
Of cane and cotton, corn and coffee

With my sweat I watered the bounteous land
My calloused hands ripped the riches from the earth
My generous bosom weaned new generations
Of barons and viscounts, princes and kings.

Yet here I am still oppressed yet unbroken.
The silent tragic hero of our beloved nation's birth
Tethered by the whims of indifferent legislation
Shackled by years of discrimination.

Now I must demand my share
And must look to a new future
Give me my wings so that
Like you, with you, I can fly.

KG