Mother’s Day Nightmare
By Opiyo Oloya Dedicated by The African magazine to all the beautiful women of Africa or African descent. A fleeting smile breaks the aged face as Mama sits on the old wooden mushroom stool Wrapped in a loose faded cotton dress A blackened utensil in one hand The other hand tends the small wood […] The post Mother’s Day Nightmare first appeared on The African Magazine.
Black News 
By Opiyo Oloya
Dedicated by The African magazine to all the beautiful women of Africa or African descent.
A fleeting smile breaks the aged face as
Mama sits on the old wooden mushroom stool
Wrapped in a loose faded cotton dress
A blackened utensil in one hand
The other hand tends the small wood fire in the hearth
The antelope skin rug is worn smooth
The fat waterpot still sits proudly in the same corner
Cobwebs hand freely from the soot darkened bamboo rafters
Allow me to bake the traditional bread I say
No you won’t do that she says
You’ve been in Canada too long
It has gone to your head, it has made you soft
You are a man, here men don’t cook
That’s not true Mama
You taught me to cook
To cook the thick brown millet bread
Now is your turn to eat my bread
Oh no she argues
Yours is the White man’s bread
It’s soft, squishy and white inside
Filling but empty, nothing
Thin like paper
You eat now and
Ten minutes later your stomach grumbles
If I want your White man’s bread
I go to the store
But Mama, do I look white to you
Is my skin any different from yours
Am I not the same son you knew before
I went to Canada
Don’t you recognize me
Your very own flesh and blood
No so fast she says
Your skin is brown as ever
Like this brown gong gong insect
But your thoughts are
White like papaya sap
Your eyes don’t see my world anymore
This antelope skin
That waterpot
The lek lizard on that cracked wall
They are all different in your eyes
You are a stranger
A black stranger with
White thoughts
Go back where you came from
Stranger
Mama I cry
Mama it is a terrible mistake
A bad dream
Go she says firmly
Go now
________
Opiyo Oloya is a Ugandan-born educator and author, living in Canada, currently Western University‘s Associate Vice President of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. Oloya was the host of “Karibuni,” a radio broadcast in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada.
The post Mother’s Day Nightmare first appeared on The African Magazine.
