We Be, Therefore, I Struggle

by Alex Abbasi

 

Decolonization

Is more than a verb

Noun, adjective or word

It is a particle

An atom of light

Jihad

Bursting

Sometimes fast, sometimes shadowed

From the depths of darkness

Sharper than a sword

Swearing to one’s Lord

¡Allahu Akbar!

 

Nothing is greater than the One

The ego a cube of ice

In the middle of a room

Repeatedly, melting away

Annihilated into the flowers of friends – on fire – surrounding your garden

Creating we out of me

Me out of we

Mercy towards

Not just homo sapiens

But all non-beings

Ecologies

Placed on the underside

Of a history not ours

A Self, body

Alien and invisible

Double triple quadrupled con(flict)sciousness

Got us trapped in a sublime

Mess that is not hours

Long – so stop the clock and think

 

Re:

Tick

Member

Tock.

 

Who are you – no really

Who.

Tick.

Are.

Talk –

you?

 

Where do I come from and how does it feel?

Has the anger/sorrow left me unable to heal?

Or the happiness too fake to fathom deep joy?

To be modern is to be toy

Barbie skinny blonde

Ken white military ethics boy

Straight and disciplined

Penetrated by a thought

The colonial is an imaginary

True reality unthought

 

Decolonization is not a word

It is the story of Adam and Eve

This time no sin – just forbidding the tree

The poisoned apple of

Mo-Dern-I-Ty

From letting slip into the mirage

So deep inside

Forced to forgot what who why how where

I am

Not due to I think

No.

I am not, nothing

No.

I am not

Therefore

I know.

 

¡Jihad!

 

From Struggle

Let.

We.

Be.

 

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Alex is a Calistinian (Palestinian + Californian) born and raised in Los Angeles, Khaliphaztlán. Currently a PhD candidate in Religion Studies at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa where he focuses on Islamic liberation theology and decolonial theory. Somewhere between an academic in activist clothing, and an activist in academic clothing.