GIVE US BACK OUR NAMES
A Poem
by Austin Mitchell
I want back my name
Give me back my name
They took my name
And gave me their name
I don’t look British
I’m not French or English
Or Portugese or Scottish
Neither Dutch nor Spanish
So how come I have this name?
This European name
Can’t blame my father
Can’t blame my mother
What happened to my African name?
They took it away
Gave me their name
Tell me why you took it away?
Reparation can’t heal the breach
No money, no apologies will heal the breach
Tell us why you gave us your names?
What was wrong with our names?
We want to know the truth
The truth about our names
Don’t give us money, tell us the truth
About our names
I guess we’ll never know
They don’t want us to know
The reason we lost our names
And got European names