UHURU

I have heard that we have uhuru,

They say it means that,

White does not tell black what to do,

White does not rule over black.

Now he is a friend, a generous friend,

A very concerned friend too,

So concerned, that he helps us,

But only if we do what he says.

He says we can pay him later,

And if we are unable to pay him,

He smiles and helps us to pay him,

So, we do what he says.

He says it is brotherhood,

I say it is exploitation, it is colonization

But white does not force black,

It is uhuru, he reminds us.

Edwine Barasa – written in the year 2000

So I came across this piece from my archives, written in 2000. I was 19 years then, and I am not really sure what inspired these thoughts. Reading it now, reminds me of this quote by Ramon Grosfoguel (2007):

"One of the most powerful myths of the twentieth century was the notion that the elimination of colonial administration amounted to the decolonization of the world. This led to the myth of a postcolonial world. The heterogeneous and multiple global structures put in place over a period of 450 years did not evaporate with the juridical-political decolonization of the periphery over the past 50 years. We continue to live under the same colonial power matrix. With juridical-political decolonization we moved from a period of global colonialism to the current period of global coloniality" 

As a 19 year old, I was aware of the economic manifestations neocolonialism. Time and the exposure that comes with it has been a gracious teacher. I am now alive to the reality that the 'colonial matrices of power' as Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2013) describes it, is multifaced and includes economic, social, ideological, cultural, epistemological, and aesthetic dimensions.