Amber: Frank Malaba

His Voice:

Every day a fellow African is made to feel less of a human being by another who feels because they are different, they’re bullied, intimidated, injured, tortured, or murdered because they don’t fit majority principle. That has to stop. We are all here for a greater purpose than destruction. You have a voice. Use It.  (An excerpt from  Frank Malaba’s Prosetry, )

From this moment on I feared being revealed as gay, of embarrassing my family and of imprisonment. In the Ndebele culture, you carry more than your family name. You carry the honour and dignity of your clan. One of the most honourable things you can do for your family, as a man, is to carry forward the bloodline thought of being forced to be with a woman for the purposes of procreation paralysed my very being.  (An excerpt from his voice in his article – A Thorn in the Flesh )

Frank Malaba is a provocateur for CHANGE.  He is AMBER, “with a fire burning in (his) soul.”

I am amber with the fire for change burning in my soul.

It is the kind of amber that burns not to consume but to purify.

It is not the traffic light kind of amber for caution but one that says,

‘Listen, that is the sound of my heart beating and exercising its duty

To circulate consciousness within and without this soul capsule.

Today, my amber engulfs my hair and makes me look like

The burning bush in the wilderness.

My amber-flicker eyes see through the calloused faces

Of the greedy men who rub their faces into the sands of

A soulless desert floor.

I hear them sing the anthem of an obliterated land that swallows

My heart and keeps my bones and flesh to boil in the kitchen of ignorance.

I sit on the edge of my cliff of dreams at sunset and see

The sun resonate his amber warmth to remind me that

I am still the man my people need.

One who can breathe in anger and exhale kind hopefulness

For a generation of seekers.

Frank Malaba ©2013

Listen to Frank’s audio compilation of his writings: Rebirth – Right to Be

Frank Malaba is an enigma to Zimbabwe, the country of his birth. Such a distinction is not defined by his talent as a poet, artist, writer, but by his advocacy, as a gay African male. He STANDS, though persecuted, he STANDS, to love, and he speaks his truth. [An excerpt from his voice in his article – A Thorn in the Flesh]. Malaba loves his country, but fights for his “very being.” He invites all gay Africans to stand with him, to fight for the right be treated as a vital participants in African culture that deserve to be respected. His blog, Frank Malaba’s Prosetry, invites all kindred spirits to speak, love, and heal.