Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

What Would the Ancestors Say?
Margaret Kimberley, BAR editor and senior columnist
14 Nov 2012
🖨️ Print Article

 

by Raymond Nat Turner

Baptist, baritone strains:

"I've been to the mountaintop,

But this is not the mountaintop”

 

What Would the Ancestors Say?

by Raymond Nat Turner

 

I know

I know

I know...

Harriet Tubman didn't slide

In and out of the slave south

Nineteen times, $40,000 reward

Hanging over her head like a

Scimitar, or Samurai sword;

Medgar didn't die in his driveway

Like a dog put down in the pound;

Malcolm didn't die on floor

Of the Audubon Ballroom;

King didn't die on chitlin' curcuit

Balcony of the Lorraine Motel;

Fred didn't die in his bed, under

Hooves of Chicago death squads

For tomfoolery---nappy-headed

Foolishness--- Negroz shrinking

To plantation Rip Van Winkles

Hung over on Ol' Massa's

Jim Jones Juice (January '09)

The eve of world revolution...

 

I know

I know

I know...

She would be leveling her pistol,

Leaving at least a half dozen dead

Negroz, after commanding "Forward,

Or die!"

 

I know

I know

I know...

He would be tongue-lashing

Negroz with his Harlem-tinged

Tough love: "You've been had,

You've been took, you've been

Hoodwinked, you've been bamboozled!"

 

I know

I know

I know...

He would be intoning in African,

Baptist, baritone strains:

"I've been to the mountaintop,

But this is not the mountaintop,

No, and I'm concerned that if you

Continue traversing this treacherous

Trail you're on, during the dark and

Difficult days ahead, not only will you

Not get to the mountaintop, you will

Find yourselves descending to depths

So low that it will require you taking an

Elevator up eighty-six floors; climbing

Forty flights of stairs to a sub cellar of

Sin, standing on a step ladder on your

Tiptoes, just to suck the Devil's dick---

 

No, I'm afraid I can't be your drum

Major on this one---

The drones must be stopped,

The satanic wars ceased, and

The barbaric killing of other peoples'

Babies ended---forever..."

Raymond Nat Turner (c) 2012 All Rights Reserved

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


More Stories


  • x
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio August 14, 2026
    14 Aug 2026
    In this week’s segment we discuss how the U.S. controls other nations in the hemisphere such as Guyana, which become de facto US colonies and assist in imposing imperial policies in the region. But…
  • x
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Guyana and the Struggle Against U.S. Imperialism
    14 Aug 2026
    Gerald Perreira is chairperson of the Organization for the Victory of the People in Guyana. He discusses the America’s Counter-Cartel Coalition (ACCC) known as Shield of the Americas, the latest…
  • El Sayed Harris
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    El-Sayed Is the Arab Obama
    11 Aug 2026
    The Democratic Party will recalibrate its messaging after its well-funded senate candidate in a Michigan primary lost to Abdul El-Sayed, who by his own admission is a capitalist, not a socialist, and…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    DOCUMENT: Declaration of the Rights of Caribbean Peoples to Self-Determination and Self-Government, West Indies National Emergency Committee, 1940.
    11 Aug 2026
    “Conflicts over colonies constitute the major source of war in the modern world.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Saudi Arabia Forms a 14-State Coalition to Stop Ansar Allah
    11 Aug 2026
    Saudi Arabia has formed a 14-state coalition to stop Ansar Allah, which has threatened to blockade its oil tankers in the Red Sea.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us