Edidiong Bassey writes

black...
i am not a skin colour or a race,
i am a story carved into
blighted tongues of raw pains
i am endurance, woven
into letters that spelled
S
L
A
V
E
R
Y
just yesterday.
i am a struggle...fierce wrestle
with codes that form CHAINS.
i am crying eyes,
i am labouring palms,
i am serial lacks that
yawn yawns into
yawning jaws of hunger.
i am tattered draperies
plastered upon chilly bodies.
i am the begging.pleading hearts
that need some easement too.
i am slacked brawns tired out
by loads of tiresomeness.
i am murky dust,
i am not a skin colour or a race,
i am these sad stories that
provoke sighs... stories
that can melt a heart of stone,
i am these rude memories
of :hunger,disease, insults,deprivation,subjugation,
alienation,scorn and all that
keeps coming back; essien emana...

* Essien emana means outcast*

Chatiment des Quatres Piquets dans les Colonies (Punishment of the Four Stakes in the Colonies) -- Marcel Verdier