'Call me Coloured'

I speak English and Afrikaans,
I live in a '3rd world country.
I reside along gangsters and corruption.
I watch the media black and white,
But I could not relate.
The fact that they foretold my identity,
Left me with some debate.

I can’t identify my identity.
They say I am mixed race,
I feel like an alien in my own country because I can’t define my place.
I was asked by a stranger am I half Filipino or pure?
The thing is—I couldn’t truly answer because I’m not sure.
You see I was not given the chance to understand the reflection of my face or to who I am in the human race.
Is it the need to feel I belong or the need to know where I come from?
A coloured for the world to displace.

Just a minority that love like others do.
What race means to me,
Is much less than what it means to you.
I come from the love of ancestors that fought for my freedom.
Yet had no identity because you’re not meant to see them.

I was handed my race, it was prescribed history.
To the world, my skin colour is just a mystery.

_db.

#colouredgirls #capetonian