IF WE MUST DIE

IF WE MUST DIE



If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.

If we must die, O let us noble die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!

O kinsmen! We must meet the common foe!
And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

-- CLAUDE McKAY*

*A native of Jamaica, British West Indies [B.W.I.], political activist in New York City, New York, U.S.A. He joined the Communist Party of America [C.P.A.], but was subsequently expelled due to his pro-African anti-colonialism "freedom movement" which the communists were not yet ready to support under African rule and action. He wrote this in 1912 C.E.

05.12.2006

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Hem Nedjer Maatiu