To some people My love is somewhat alien; When he comes up, they start subject-changing, and In some states he’s seen as some contagion – In those zones, he stays subterranean; Some love my love; they run parades for him: Liberal citizens lead the way for him: Concurrent with some countries embracing him, Whole faiths and nations seem ashamed of him: Some tried banning him, God-damning him, Toe-tagging him, Prayed that he stayed in the cabinet, But my love kicked in the panelling, ran for it – My love! Can’t be trapping him in labyrinths – Maverick, my love is; thwarts challenges; Cleverest geneticists can’t fathom him, Priests can’t defeat him with venomous rhetoric; They’d better quit; my love’s too competitive: Still here, despite the Taliban, Vatican, And rap, ragga in their anger and arrogance, Calling on my love with lit matches and paraffin – Despite the fistfights and midnight batterings – My love’s still here and fiercely battling, My love comes through anything
This poem appears in Sylvia Tamale‘s ‘African Sexualities’, a groundbreaking volume from Pambazuka Press.
Musa Okwonga performed his poem ‘My love’ at a memorial service for murdered Ugandan LGBTI activist David Kato on May 18, 2011. The poem was originally written for Eudy Simelane, the South African lesbian footballer who was gang-raped and murdered.
