Vietnam | Black Agenda Report

Kemet Mawakana

26 Mar 2008

🖨️ Print Article

7_foot_poet_upright_250wide Kemet Mawakana (aka “The Seven-Foot Poet”) is a highly acclaimed spoken-word artist, and has published two books A . . . Z . . . Infinity and Crucifixion of My Soul. The collective body of his works presented weekly in BAR are in tribute to Listervelt Middleton, Dr. John Henrik Clarke, and “For The People”. Currently, he is a facilitator at AYA Educational Institute (www.ayaed.com) and can be reached at sevenfootpoet(at)gmail.com.

To read or listen to "Vietnam", please click on the link below.

Vietnam

To listen to the audio of "Vietnam< click the flash player below

Click the flash player below to listen to or the mic to download an mp3 copy of this BA Radio commentary.

At a young and impressionable age

sealed was his fate.

Taught the enemy was an animal

sub-human

now he’s brainwashed

so that he can start boomin’:

“Boom boom boom yeah I was gunnin’

And then you look and all you see is . . . .”

The enemy’s tiny foothold from within

would not submit or bend;

thus and so the war begins.

“Homies all standin around just hangin
Some dope-dealin some gang-bangin
We decide to roll and we deep . . .”

The American went on a mission called search and destroy

killing men

raping women and girls

and crippling boys.

Napalm strikes by air support

reinforced thoughts

that the enemy was either a criminal

or should be shot for sport.

Because of the undeniable conflict

between his training

and the independent conclusions

reached by his maturing brain

the American turned to narcotics

to put his mind at ease.

“Since I was a youth, I smoked weed out . . .”

But the war won’t end

it can never end for him

until he looks in the mirror and sees

-- he’s Vietnamese.

By Kemit Mawakana (aka The Seven-Foot Poet)

Peace (when appropriate) War (when necessary)

Copyright 2008.

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.

More Stories

Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Gerald Horne Discusses Trump Foreign Policy
08 Nov 2024
Dr. Gerald Horne joins us from Houston to provide an analysis of US foreign policy in the wake of Donald Trump’s overwhelmming victory and return to the white house.
Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Trump vs Harris - US Citizens Denied the Choice for Peace, People or Planet
06 Nov 2024
On November 3, 2024, BAR Editor and Columnist, Ajamu Baraka, participated in a panel discussion entitled "Trump vs Harris - US Citizens Denied Choice for Peace, People or Planet." Black Agenda Report…
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
How Trump Won and What Black People Should Do
06 Nov 2024
Donald Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris must be a wake up call to Black people. The Democratic Party is a dead end and a movement killer. Our survival depends on getting that corrupt wing of the…
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: Why I Won’t Vote, W. E. B. Du Bois, 1956
06 Nov 2024
“I believe that democracy has so far disappeared in the United States that no "two evils" exist. There is but one evil party with two names, and it will be elected despite all I can do or say.”
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
Bill Clinton and the “Dictators Club”
06 Nov 2024
Bill Clinton couldn’t be cozier, or more richly rewarded, in what he calls “the dictator’s club.”