From centuries of royalty, ruling kingdoms
To decades of poverty, victim symptoms
From growing food for the village, from the cradle
To putting cocoa puffs and fruit of your breakfast table.
From naming our assets with pride for ages
To them being discovered, named after strangers
From roaming valleys and meditating on plains
To segregation, prison and colonial chains.
From understanding life and esoteric knowledge
To sitting in churches and being brainwashed in college
From building cities, holy temples, and pyramids
To cleaning your house and streets, treated like invalids!
From breathing fresh air and eating real food
To pollution, empty calories and unhealthy moods
From humble lifestyles and building families
To spending time building your industries.
No idea what my people gone through
Laid down their lives to build a world for you
No idea what my people go through
Deny themselves to be down for you (-That's why I'm)
Tried of you trynna school me - Give me lesson
To be or not to be down That's tha real question (x2)
From killing wild animals for ivory and furs
To animal rights and hunting freedoms deferred
From owning our land, the African dream
To having it stolen, then paying rent to the Queen.
From dancing in sunshine, stress free and bold
To corporate pressure and freezing in the cold
From sailing and meditating on the Zambezi shores
To tour buses, cruise ships, so you can get yours.
From being self-sufficient, supporting local trade
To choked by multi-nationals, and locals fade
From mining metals, selling 'em to you as bars
To buying them back, as furniture and cars.
From complex surgery and natural medication
To western doctors and harmful vaccinations
From nurturing our children so traditions bred
To leaving them home, raising your kids instead.
No idea what my people gone through
Denied their birthright to give land to you
No idea what my people go through
Stripped of resources to support you. (- That's why I'm)
Tried of you trynna school me - Give me lesson
To be or not to be down That's tha real question (x2)
From respecting the dead and royal decrees
To excavate our kings, while yours rest in peace
From praying to ancestors and sacred rituals
To worshipping foreign prophets, giving up spirituals.
From living the truth, free from addiction
To suppressing reality, calling it fiction
From men, women and children, honouring marriage
To divorce, single mothers and weak sexual habits.
From elders, giving history and advice
To being replaced by TV, an electronic device
From migrating to conditions that pleased us
To national borders, passports and visas.
From unity within tribal gene pools
To classic European divide and rule
From suppressing our art forms of dance and rhythm
To seeing you get props, just plain stealing 'em.
No idea what my people gone through
Cultures compromised to let yours shine through
No idea what my people go through
Accomplishments ignored to give props to you (-That's why I'm!)
Tried of you trynna school me - Give me lesson
To be or not to be down That's tha real question (x2)
The physical war was over, the battle grounds turned to cemeteries
And the rebels assimilated into armies and after the masses celebrated their independence they realized they were not free
But dependent. Fabrication and distortion of history
Deludes the African mentality
making us believe we were uncivilized and did not know God
When the opposite was true. This is part of the war of the mind.
-We need a revolution of the mind.
Tried of you trynna school me -Give me lesson
To be or not to be down That's tha real question (x2)
No idea what my people gone through
Laid down their lives to build a world for you!
To decades of poverty, victim symptoms
From growing food for the village, from the cradle
To putting cocoa puffs and fruit of your breakfast table.
From naming our assets with pride for ages
To them being discovered, named after strangers
From roaming valleys and meditating on plains
To segregation, prison and colonial chains.
From understanding life and esoteric knowledge
To sitting in churches and being brainwashed in college
From building cities, holy temples, and pyramids
To cleaning your house and streets, treated like invalids!
From breathing fresh air and eating real food
To pollution, empty calories and unhealthy moods
From humble lifestyles and building families
To spending time building your industries.
No idea what my people gone through
Laid down their lives to build a world for you
No idea what my people go through
Deny themselves to be down for you (-That's why I'm)
Tried of you trynna school me - Give me lesson
To be or not to be down That's tha real question (x2)
From killing wild animals for ivory and furs
To animal rights and hunting freedoms deferred
From owning our land, the African dream
To having it stolen, then paying rent to the Queen.
From dancing in sunshine, stress free and bold
To corporate pressure and freezing in the cold
From sailing and meditating on the Zambezi shores
To tour buses, cruise ships, so you can get yours.
From being self-sufficient, supporting local trade
To choked by multi-nationals, and locals fade
From mining metals, selling 'em to you as bars
To buying them back, as furniture and cars.
From complex surgery and natural medication
To western doctors and harmful vaccinations
From nurturing our children so traditions bred
To leaving them home, raising your kids instead.
No idea what my people gone through
Denied their birthright to give land to you
No idea what my people go through
Stripped of resources to support you. (- That's why I'm)
Tried of you trynna school me - Give me lesson
To be or not to be down That's tha real question (x2)
From respecting the dead and royal decrees
To excavate our kings, while yours rest in peace
From praying to ancestors and sacred rituals
To worshipping foreign prophets, giving up spirituals.
From living the truth, free from addiction
To suppressing reality, calling it fiction
From men, women and children, honouring marriage
To divorce, single mothers and weak sexual habits.
From elders, giving history and advice
To being replaced by TV, an electronic device
From migrating to conditions that pleased us
To national borders, passports and visas.
From unity within tribal gene pools
To classic European divide and rule
From suppressing our art forms of dance and rhythm
To seeing you get props, just plain stealing 'em.
No idea what my people gone through
Cultures compromised to let yours shine through
No idea what my people go through
Accomplishments ignored to give props to you (-That's why I'm!)
Tried of you trynna school me - Give me lesson
To be or not to be down That's tha real question (x2)
The physical war was over, the battle grounds turned to cemeteries
And the rebels assimilated into armies and after the masses celebrated their independence they realized they were not free
But dependent. Fabrication and distortion of history
Deludes the African mentality
making us believe we were uncivilized and did not know God
When the opposite was true. This is part of the war of the mind.
-We need a revolution of the mind.
Tried of you trynna school me -Give me lesson
To be or not to be down That's tha real question (x2)
No idea what my people gone through
Laid down their lives to build a world for you!
Contributed by giorgio - 2009/11/24 - 20:01
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Album: TruthSeeker
Living in post colonial southern African economy. An illustration on the injustices of globalization and colonization.