We All Need to Get Back to Our African Roots

by Ernie McCray

I sometimes think of Africa.
Where we humans began.
In the beginning
dark of skin.
Existing back then
like kin,
sisters and brothers
depending on each other
for survival,
gathering seeds together,
dining on fruits
and nuts,
flowers, bark, insects
and leaves together,
becoming hunters
in competition
with other
carnivores
for prey,
then leaving
the place of their birth
to create civilizations
all over the earth,
metamorphosing
into a rainbow
of skin tones,
taking on
new ways of being
and seeing,
adventurous
human beings
who, over time,
sailed the seas
and climbed the highest mountains,
eventually
flying
far and deep
into the heavens,
looking down on
an extraordinarily
wonderful and beautiful planet
that provides
all that its inhabitants need
but the people it hosts,
at this stage of human history,
fail to match
its celestial loveliness,
as we’re so opposed to
ideals of togetherness,
to working for the common good,
all bogged down
and entrenched
in our religious beliefs
and isms,
racism, ageism,
classism, sexism…
and our unwillingness
to try on each other’s
hopes and dreams
for size –
as though
we don’t realize
that we need each other
to survive,
to keep
our species alive.

So opposite
of what it was like
at the beginning
when Africa
welcomed primates like us
to the world,
folks who relied
on one another
to give life on earth
a whirl.
Together.

We need to get back
to our African roots.