Where Our Struggles Connect

Manifold democratic struggles, I do recollect Subjects of my poignant upset When democracy faces a ceremonious reject And its creeds a precarious neglect I find me self-recruited into this project

Of democracy - the responsibility to protect But lonely I feel in this net Are there other voices yet? To what other struggles do mine connect?

There and then the echos resurrect From South Africa’s #AmINext? The lamentations - #ZimbabweanLivesMatter in all facets #EndSARS and all police threats #FeesMustFall, save our sweats #RejectFinanceBill and all it represents #BringBackOurGirls from the den of death

What an epiphany of voices - reverberating desires unmet Not desiring a world perfect But one where all rights find respect Where citizens are not regaled as suspects But as the free world’s justice prefects

Herein do our struggles connect And our voices made of effect

However, my binoculars, flaws they detect Many voices, yet noises of defects The dominance of biased voices and sects Power imbalances from actors of elect Inputs from the periphery facing neglect

For how long will this woe us beset?

I call for activism with breadth and effect Voiced through truth, passion and affect Many voices yet one subject Many agendas yet one dialect A global south, many subsets yet one mindset

One mindset To be architects With the resolve and intellect Through which advocacy is reset

Through which activism begets The present and future we all covet And through which authoritarianism is laid to rest

Again, herein should our struggles connect If the clock is correct, then it’s time to connect.