black in the blue pacific     (for mohit and riyad)

a hawaiian nationalist/idealizes malcolm x/
wishes white people/would fear hawaiians/
the way they fear blacks

my heart skips/a beat/popolo/mea ‘uli¹/
something’s not right

in melanesia/the islands/are not/black/
but/the people are/unlike polynesians/
they believe/in/democracy/they’ve inherited/
dreadlocks/from ancient/ancestors

contemporary caribbean/music causes waves/raves/
reggae plays/all over the pacific

herbs was a band/in aotearoa/new zealand/because of them/more bands/
in the islands/played reggae/but rasta/was just a front/sometimes/
for fascist ideals/in fiji/a fellow/wrote songs against indians² /
as if they weren’t black/as if they were/colonizers/
as if he was/conscious

in california/an indian reggae group/sings songs of love/
for fiji

black/is a state of mind

like the colour of an island

¹popolo: Hawaiian word for “black”, used derogatorily towards African Americans; mea’uli: Samoan word meaning “black thing”, used derogratorily towards Melanesians and African Americans.

²Indians or Indo-Fijians form a significant minority in the population of the Fiji Islands. Most are the descendants of indentured labourers brought by the British to work in colonial plantations in the 19th century. Indo-Fijians face racial discrimination from nationalist groups claiming to be acting on behalf of all the indigenous people of Fiji.