Black skin in the forsaken outbackof the worldboth concrete and junglein varying states of decompositionand men in a cornerordering girls to smilestiff with rigor mortisall bones no flesh
Aaiun Nin was born in Angola. She is an activist and – as so many black men and women – a poet. She writes about the most important and prevalent global problem: racism and the sorry plight of people with non-heterosexual orientation. Her poems recount the sexual violence, religious fundamentalism and patriarchal society in her home country and since 2016 – the year she set foot on European soil – the discrimination against immigrants and the systematic police violence that is practised in Scandinavian countries against people of colour.
Heavy hands of grown peopleCovering their mouths.Scream in silence.The first dying.Body is a bodyBody is a bodyFlesh is not yoursGrowing flesh of adolescence.Unripe flesh ready for picking.
Aaiun Nin could not live in Angola because of the homophobia ingrained among her compatriots, because Angolan law does not recognise marriage between individuals of the same sex and because the Catholic Church frowns upon unions of such people. This outstanding woman – she has mastered six languages! – could not safely continue her residence in the country of her birth, especially with her same-sex partner, and so she left the Dark Continent straight for Denmark, where she spent a couple of years, enriching world literature with her poetry. You can read fragments of one poem in between the paragraphs.
The mayor and the authorities of Kraków (Cracow), the second most populous city in Poland, have just decided to offer the black poet residence in a magnificent villa (pictured). In 2011 Kraków had joined the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN), and since that time it has welcomed eight prosecuted writers (Aaiun Nin is the ninth) to the sumptuous villa from as different countries as Egypt, North Ossetia (small part of Russia in the Caucasus region), Turkey, Iran, Congo, Libya, Belarus and Syria, i.e. countries that have come into conflict with the West.
Heartbreak is stoned-facemechanicalfingers on the trigger of whatever shape a gun will takeshoots in the darkctr+delself-destructsesc+delfighting against the will to live.
Aaiun Nin has come to Poland at the right time. As an experienced activist and erudite speaker she will be able to poetically point to all the remnants of the patriarchal societal structure of the Polish nation, help the Catholic Church reconsider her inimical stance towards LGTB people, infuse the younger generations with tolerance of and acceptance of all sexual orientations, stamp out racism and xenophobia, sensitize the police to the psychological fragility of immigrants.
that some of uscan stick to the first dyingpush against the second third fourthhold on to whatever flesh is leftcall it our ownheartbrokenstill smilingmaybe out of delirium
Photo of Aaiun Nin, Kraków Otwarty na Świat.
Fragments of Aaiun Nin’s poem quoted from Klimaaksjon / Norwegian Writers’ Climate Campaign ?? NWCC.
