Elisa commemorates enslaved ancestors during Keti Koti: ‘With my poems I bring their stories close’

Elisa commemorates enslaved ancestors during Keti Koti With my poems

A passage from Elisa’s poem for the Utrecht slavery monument Flight and Resistance:

We’re standing still

so that our ancestors rest on our shoulders

and we wear them

their strength is not weakened

it flows through

it flows through our voices

history we will tell and their stories will not perish

we will collect all the energy of the wind power and the waves of the ocean

peace is needed to continue

so we’re standing still

so that our ancestors rest on our shoulders

and we wear them

together we absorb the information

and we’ll talk to each other

this is where we multiply instead of divide

in which healing and gathering are intertwined

from the past to the future

the present is strengthened

and awareness brings movement to a change

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