In Africa, the saying is:
“A man is nothing without a woman
he cannot be a chief and when his breath
leaves him, his name
will be knocked into the earth
forgotten as his flesh,”
So we women don’t cry
we carry pain
in our bosom,
our stomach bulge
pregnated by sorrow
we guard our tears
like a dam
for if we were to shed one drop
we couldn’t stop
and we wouldn’t have been able
to fight the Portuguese in the Congo,
the English in the Portland hills of Jamaica or
prisoners and derelicts of Europe in the Americas
If just one salt
had run down our cheeks
the pyramids would not be built
and the 60 million Africans
who drowned, starved and were killed
in the usurption of the continent – the middle passage
would not even be a memory
So women don’t cry
we don’t cry
mothers don’t cry
when their husbands crrep through the back door
while they remain with a stone stare
to sing freedom in the enemy’s face,
sisters don’t cry
when they see their brothers
strung up mutilated,
daughters don’t cry
when a moment’s rape
alters their future
no, women don’t cry
we just hold it in
the crevices of our teeth,
in our wombs,
under our arm pits
in the loopof our ears
we woman don’t cry
we only weep and wail
in our rocking
that’s why we talk to ourselves
and build more lives.
Recording: Casa della poesia, 2025.
