Dear Tutu, Dear Chalo

You won't understand all of this now, but life's experiences will deepen your understanding:

I pray that you learn to love your copper skin, and wooly hair--start now.

I pray that you will always carry your head in the way that you were raised. I pray that in the face of adversity, you remain confident in your self.

I pray that when they question your faculties that you remember who built this country, that you remember who wove and set the fabric of culture around the world.

I pray that when they question your manhood that you remember our mother, that you remember habooba and the strength of the women who've raised us.

I pray that in discord with another, you speak to their humanity and recognize his or her ideas as a store of value for their experiences that are as worthy of as much respect and consideration as their person.

I pray that when they spite you for your differences that you remember that we are all the same and that we must create a system that acknowledges this.

Love,

Ackah