My Canvas

Stretched over decades and oceans is the canvas of my life, too long away from the polite, humble Africa; its music, its street life, its vast empty fields, its thick forests, and mkokotenis [rickshaws] delaying cars on the road. My heart's longing thrives on the call and response of songs; carrying me decades, across oceans, and then it all seems like just yesterday.

Where are those Songs

Where are those Songs

my mother and yours

always sang

fitting rhythms

to the whole

vast span of life?

Sing daughter sing

around you are

uncountable tunes

some sung

others unsung

sing them

to your rhythms

observe

listen

absorb

soak yourself

bathe

in the stream of life

and then sing

sing

simple songs

for the people

for all to hear

and learn

and sing

with you.

From Where are those Songs (Daughter of My People Sing! 1972) by Mĩcere Gĩthae Mũgo, Ph.D. A former student of my mother, to this day Dr. Mugo calls her Mwalimu [teacher].

Mĩcere Gĩthae Mũgo, Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence and Chair of the Department of African American Studies at Syracuse University, is a poet, playwright and literary critic who has published 6 books, 8 co-edited supplementary school readers, 3 monographs and edited the journal, Third World in Perspective. Other titles include: Daughter of My People, Sing!; My Mother’s Poem and Other Songs; The Long Illness of Ex-Chief Kiti; Visions of Africa and The Trial of Dedan Kimathi (co-authored with Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o ). In November 2002, The East African Standard Century listed Mĩcere among “The Top 100: They Influenced Kenya Most During the 20th Century.” A committed community activist, Mĩcere is a passionate advocate for human rights especially as they have historically been denied to Blacks, women, children, the masses and other marginalized groups.