{"id":2507,"date":"2020-09-27T17:06:44","date_gmt":"2020-09-27T21:06:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/?p=2507"},"modified":"2025-07-25T11:59:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T15:59:22","slug":"we-are-the-children-of-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/2020\/we-are-the-children-of-the-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"We are the Children of the Sun"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n We are the Children of the Sun\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

by Carolyn Ramzy<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Carolyn Ramzy & Nadim, holding hands — photo by Marcus Zacharia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To Nadim, my little Egyptian-American-Canadian boy,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I write this to you in the year an officer stepped on George Floyd\u2019s neck for 8:43 minutes and murdered him. After hearing the news, you turned to me and asked:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWill an officer stand on my neck because I am brown?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At six, it was the year we had to begin.
\nEgyptians comes in all shades and shadows, and the Egyptian colloquial Arabic is rich with capturing the beauty of our changing skin. In Canada, our colours are all the more striking, as our skin pays homage to the sun when it sleeps. In the winter, our skin remembers and it waits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#SayTheirNames #BlackLivesMatter<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ya Habibi | \u064a\u0627 \u062d\u0628\u064a\u0628\u064a<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are the Children of the Sun
\nWhen it sees our skin, it kisses it and says \u201chey, do you remember me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember my body where you use to live? This is your first home.
\nI cooked you in here. I danced with you here.
\nAnd I loved you here from the very beginning.
\nWhat colour is your first home? It is the colour of Mama. And, of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the winter, our skin is like \u0634\u0627\u064a \u0628\u0627\u0644\u0644\u0628\u0646<\/strong> | shay-bel-laban, tea sweetened with milk and honey.
\nIt is the colour of slumbering wheat, \u0623\u0645\u062d\u0627\u0648\u064a<\/strong> | am\u1e25awi.
\nIn the winter, our skin sleeps. But it always remembers:
\nWe are the children of the sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember my arms where you use to sing? This is your second home.
\nI rocked you here. I fed you here. And I sang to you here, from the very beginning.
\nWhat colour is your second home? It is the colour of Mama. And, of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the summer, our skin remembers. When it sees the sun, it sings.
\nWe are the colour of \u0639\u0633\u0644 \u0623\u0628\u064a\u0636<\/strong> |\u2018asal abyad and then \u0639\u0633\u0644 \u0625\u0633\u0648\u062f<\/strong> | \u2018asal iswed, wild honey that simmers into dark molasses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are the children of the sun,
\nand our skin comes in many shades and shadows:
\namber, maple, and toasted sesame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are
\n\u0645\u0633\u0645\u0633\u0645\u064a\u0646<\/strong> | Misamsimin like a sweet sesame stick
\n\u0645\u0639\u0633\u0644\u064a\u0646<\/strong> | Mi’asilin like glistening honey
\n\u0623\u0645\u062d\u0648\u064a\u064a\u0646<\/strong> | Am\u1e25awin like the gold of full grown wheat
\n\u0628\u064a\u0636<\/strong> | Bied, like the white of cotton and clouds.
\n\u0633\u0645\u0631<\/strong> | Sumr, Black like the rich silt of the Nile that feeds us all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are all Children of the Sun.
\nWhen it sees our skin, it kisses it and says \u201cdo you remember me?\u201d
\nAnd our skin whispers back: \u201cI do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carolyn Ramzy is an associate professor of music at Carleton University. Her research focuses on Egyptian Christian popular music in Egypt and a quickly growing diaspora community in the U.S. and Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Carolyn Ramzy To Nadim, my little Egyptian-American-Canadian boy, I write this to you in the year an officer stepped on George Floyd\u2019s neck for 8:43 minutes and murdered him. After hearing the news, you turned to me and asked: \u201cWill an officer stand on my neck because I am brown?\u201d At six, it was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2518,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[45,1],"tags":[377,378,364,183],"class_list":["post-2507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-news","tag-blacklivesmatter","tag-saytheirnames","tag-black-lives-matter","tag-racial-minorities"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2507"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3401,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2507\/revisions\/3401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}