Written piece
Threads We Refuse to Break
Muhammad Garba Isah
Nigeria
About this piece
“Threads We Refuse to Break” is a spoken word poem exploring identity, inherited systems, and resilience. It reflects on shared Commonwealth histories while amplifying a new generation’s voice to reclaim agency, rewrite narratives, and shape a more just future.
They stitched us into a story
we did not write.
Borders drawn like careless lines
across ancient rhythms,
inking divisions
into lands that once spoke as one.
They called it order.
We lived the disorder.
They lent us systems
wrapped in promises—
but beneath the ribbon
was dependence.
And now—
we inherit questions heavier than history:
Why does a continent so rich
still beg at tables it built?
Why do our hands—
that feed the world—
still tremble with hunger?
But listen…
This is not just a story of struggle.
This is a story of becoming.
Because beneath the weight,
something is rising.
In classrooms without chairs,
in streets without light,
in voices once silenced—
a new language is forming.
We are learning to unlearn.
To rebuild.
To reclaim.
Thread by thread—
we are stitching a future
they never designed for us.
Not borrowed.
Not dictated.
But ours.
So when they ask
what it means
to be part of the Commonwealth—
Tell them this:
It is not just history we share.
It is responsibility.
To rewrite the narrative.
To reclaim the voice.
To remind the world—
That we were never just patches
in their quilt…
We are the weavers.