Check this brand new track by Marcel Cartier, featuring Akala and Nana D, and produced by Agent of Change. A Kwanzaa gift for y’all 🙂
Lyrics:
[Marcel verse 1]
Those who do not move do not feel their chains
But the African people are aware of the pain
Aware of the game, invader deception
Black presidents who are White Man extensions
People from Cape to Cairo rebel
Cos fake independence and ongoing hell
Colonial ties still keep ’em chained
The richest continent’s getting robbed again
The IMF and World Bank criminal schemes
What about reparations? To me it seems
That every metropole from Amsterdam
To Paris and Brussels was built with the hands
Of African labour, a slave relation
Developing Europe at the expense of their nation
But Africans rebelled from the first conquest
Took back independence at last accomplished
[Nana D chorus]
You’d better get your hands off… AFRICA!
You’d better get your hands off… AFRICA!
[Marcel verse 2]
Look at Africom, the African Command
That’s the US and her puppets shaking each others’ hands
They went in for Libya, going for Uganda
When will we learn we can’t be sleeping any longer?
Still salivating over claiming Zimbabwe
The worst man alive to them is Robert Mugabe
But land should belong to the African masses
Not a small group of white settler bastards
My fellow Europeans wanna whine and groan
About losing what we stole, that is not our home
That is not our land, need to choose the side
Of the future of humanity, the old has expired
If you ever want peace then you better want justice
Most of the continent is far from accustomed
Sarkozy, Cameron and Africa’s son
Better know that their war can never ever be won
[Nana D chorus]
You’d better get your hands off… AFRICA!
You’d better get your hands off… AFRICA!
[Akala verse]
The mother continent where we all originate
Eugenics ain’t dead so it’s cool to eliminate humanity’s darker shade
Genocidal AIDS, ancient civilisations
Not a continent of slaves
In every step of the way the elites have helped pave the way
For all the madness that we’re seeing today
But that in no way excuses the centuries of rape
But if we’re gonna solve it it’s an issue we have to face
Because every brother ain’t a brother just because of their colour
Look at the hand that killed Patrice and Thomas and others
While millions murdered in the Congo it don’t make the news
But if a footballer’s wife should buy a pair of shoes
I’m supposed to give a fuck, apparently
I do not! The world’s a reflection of your block
And if you think a world that can profit from African death
And be totally cool
Thinks that you’re better cos you live here
You’re a fucking fool
[Nana D chorus]
You’d better get your hands off… AFRICA!
You’d better get your hands off… AFRICA!
Some serious emotional and lyrical depth from London-based rapper Ghetts in this track. As his skills continue to grow and his subject matter diversifies, Ghetts has a real chance to establish himself as one of the very best rappers in the history of UK rap.
People are being made redundant
Some of my friends and family are amongst them
And everybody’s family depends on a lump sum
But some ain’t gonna see a salary when the month’s done
How you gonna tell a kid he aint got to rob
When the only role model he has just lost his job
Unemployed without another choice
Heading down the same path he tried to make his son avoid
Jobseekers allowance aint for everyone
We grown, there’s no power in a pellet gun
You tryna tell a n***a that’s a breadwinner
Forget dinner and he’ll do things he’s never done
It’s the story of the pauper
The rich get richer and the poor get poorer
But don’t get me wrong
Three out of ten will cross the border
And be out the ends, but still it weren’t a shortcut
I understand what it took to do that
How Naomi Campbell had to look to do that
What Levi Roots had to cook to do that
The kinda weight the top shottas had to push to do that
What kinda singer Diz had to get on a hook to do that
And when you’re tryna push out of the same place you come from
Everybody has a goal, and pulling you back
So it’s bullet proof this, and bullet proof that
And I don’t expect those from outside the slums to understand this
How you gonna relate? Your mum and dad’s rich
Welcome to my ends, it’s gully
And none of us are getting no inheritance money
What’s your life like round here? I bet everything’s honey
Yeah we all got problems, but I bet yours has never been the money
Wait, I don’t know you so I shouldn’t pass judgement
Vice versa, but sometimes assets confine a person
You ain’t gotta tell me that you’re rich cos I know you are
Your life is perfect – is that why you turn your nose up at the lower class?
Or is your life just as fucked as mine behind the curtains?
But you don’t wanna show it cos you’ve got an image to uphold
I know, but when you come home, you unload, stress
Staring in the mirror like “I’m so depressed”
And now you wanna jumbo to jet, yeh I get it
Cos I feel like that six out of seven days
And that’s why a n***a be addicted to lemon haze
Listen when I’m spittin’ a system is devil-made
The government have got the nation brainwashed
A close friend of mine just left the Caribbean
When he got here he said he shoulda stayed in Barbados
I could explain but I’d rather let you read between the lines
Yo don he switched the brain on
You can’t even read the signs, where’s your brain gone?
What can I say dawg?
The truth lays beneath the lies
But it’s like I’m tryna lead the blind
And they would rather remain lost.
Forever in the rat race
Life ain’t getting no better and it’s facts mate
So I’m lighting up the lemon on a bad day
And as I let the zoot settle in my ashtray
I’m thinking of all the terrible things man-made
Things that caused this inevitable rampage
I’m hoping I ain’t got vegetables for a fanbase
Check out this brand new Mumia Abu-Jamal tribute (available for free download from Soundcloud), produced by me.
Lyrics:
[Chorus]
You can lock me down but I will never be your prisoner
Victims are the ones that just obey and just give it up
Even in this world we enslaved like some prisoners
A freedom fighter fights til the world listen up
[Rodstarz verse]
Police terrorism, television showing fiction
Officer shot, them attorneys want convictions
Silencing the movements that stood up for liberation
Scared of self-defence and people’s self-determination
Terrified witnesses, forced cooperation
Thirty long years behind the walls of these racists
Hero to the youth and everyone for revolution
We need a million Mumias on the streets as a solution
Take over the media, tell the story to the people
Decolonise the streets til the cops are illegal
The world is my cell and ain’t nobody come and visit me
Went to they schools but they ain’t teaching us the history
Live from death row and I hope the world is hearing this
Malcolm in my dreams and Fidel making appearances
Salvador Allende was about popular unity
Freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal and my community
[Chorus]
You can lock me down but I will never be your prisoner
Victims are the ones that just obey and just give it up
Even in this world we enslaved like some prisoners
A freedom fighter fights til the world listen up
[G1 verse]
Hear the screams of the people, millions for Mumia
We marched in 97, no fear we still here
Years later, more hearings, more appeals
They still trying to have an innocent man killed
Or locked up in a cage for the rest of his days
To suppress the power of putting a pen to a page
In the age of information, really informing us
Despite incarceration, a people’s journalist
Voice of the voiceless can’t never be silenced
Exposing the injustice of systemic state violence
They lie, they steal, they rob, they kill
Yet we the ones targetted and thrown in jail
Thirty years plus in chains and cuffs
Now what we gone do, get on that bus
To Illadelph, heed the call, free ’em all
And libertad for Mumia Abu-Jamal
[Chorus]
You can lock me down but I will never be your prisoner
Victims are the ones that just obey and just give it up
Even in this world we enslaved like some prisoners
A freedom fighter fights til the world listen up
No doubt you’ve already downloaded the new Immortal Technique album, The Martyr. If you haven’t, you might wanna do that.
This is one of my favourite tracks of the album, with Tech positioning himself as a “one percenter”. Behind the irony, there’s a serious message, and Tech works the double-time flow surprisingly well.
You get up and howl about America and democracy
There is no America, there is no democracy
We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies
The world is a college of corporations
Inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business
The world is a business and I have chosen you to preach this evangel
[Intro]
For all my free market, health care-robbing
Stock-stealing, retirement fund fuckin’-with ni**as
Fuck your little credit card-scamming, jewelry-stealing
Crack-selling, liquor store-robbing, motherfuckers
Shout out to the homies Carnegie, OG Willy Randolph Hearst
Farouk, Rockefeller – the real Rockefeller
My main b**ch Leona, pour out a little Louis the 13th
Scott Rothstein, Jack Abramoff, hold ya head
My Rothschild ni**as…
LET’S GET THIS MONEY!
[1st Verse]
I spend my day pairin’ America overseas
Pension for the workers, ni**a please
Embezzlement etiquette, private settlement
I’m better with confederate rhetoric
From my mansion in Connecticut
Foreclose, evict hoes out of tenement
I twist words like a speech impediment
I hope you got good credit, b**ch
If not, better get a new job with benefits
While I play golf with ni**as I get cheddar with
New money buys brand new carats
My old money bought your rich grandparents
You got grills in your mouth, I ain’t mad at ya
I own every goldmine in South Africa
Thanks, baby, you made me a billion
Plus I own a building for each one of my children’s children, that’s the shit
Snort coke in the whip, Miss USA suckin’ my dick
Yeah, what! Fuck the law cause real jail is for suckas
I go to country club prison, you dumb motherfuckers
(I am the 1 percent, fuckin’ b**ch!)
[Hook]
You know my CEO, corporate steeze, please
Overthrow governments overseas in a breeze
Politicians in my pockets for a few hundred Gs
So if I’m ever in court, my assets will never freeze
[2nd Verse]
I got a job and a house and a bank account
When I’m out, I doubt that’s something you can say
And if not then I’ll fake death like Kenneth Lay
Make money everyday the world burns on its axis
While y’all struggling to pay taxes
I’m getting my money the fastest
Memos and faxes, shredded up documents
Slush funds through the corrupt continents
But they don’t want me indicted
Cause they don’t want my dirty laundry aired when I’d fight it
Don’t get my lawyers excited
Cause what good is a law if you can’t rewrite it
I got CIA, traitors
Dictators, so fuck y’all whistleblowers and haters (SHEEEEEEIIIIITTT!)
All of this money from Al-Qaeda
In the bank 9/11 widows go to later
Capitalism’s who I pray to, fuck the state of the world
Money talks so what the fuck I need to say to ya girl
(I don’t pay them to fuck! I pay them to leave!)
[Hook 2]
You know my CEO, corporate steeze, greed
I treat countries like the IMF, down on your knees
Real gangstas run the world, fuck what you believe
I’ll cut down a forest while you ni**as burnin’ some trees
I’ll get your family murdered for a couple of Gs
Cause your working class money ain’t fucking with me
You think rappers are rich cause of songs you heard
My labels make the money and have them rap the fucking words
[3rd Verse]
Yacht in the ocean, coastin’ with the sails out
Hey America, thanks for the bailouts
I made off with the Banco Ambrosiano
Got away scot-free like Il Vaticano
Activists act a b**ch, get mad at me
Cause of my tax-free charity
80 percent to the staff and company
And 20 percent to the homeless and hungry
The country gotta pay the Fed Reserve
Kick back to the banksters, haven’t you learned
You protest cops or patrols on the street
But I bought city hall so I own the police
E-mail, Facebook, and the shit you tweet
All the phone companies, so I heard you speakin’
My suggestion is your correction
No elections, sex with no affection
No invention of benefit to world of man
Will exist till I got the money in my hand
World Bank interest rate damn rape on the spot
But I’m gangsta, you gon’ take my money like it or not
(I got your country in my pocket, motherfucker!)
[Hook 3]
You know my CEO, masonic steeze, cheese
Only little people pay all these taxes and fees
Since you were born we control what you watch and you read
And pretty soon we’re gonna own the fuckin’ air that you breathe
I take what I want, fucker, I don’t have to say please
I convince you that it’s good for you, take it and leave
You think president’s are a face of a nation
I put ‘em all way off, end of the conversation
Despite the best efforts of London’s mayor to get rid of Black History Month (last year Boris cut funding for Black History Month from £132,000 to a miserly £10,000), it’s here again. The potential value of Black History Month is usually lost – most teachers don’t take the opportunity to address the deep racism and Eurocentrism at the heart of our education system, and black history is reduced to a few facts about Rosa Parks and a passing mention of how good Bob Marley was at singing. The only section of the 500-year-long legacy of resistance to slavery that we hear about is the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, which is painted as having brought us the post-racial harmony we supposedly have now!
This dumbed-down black history actively contributes to the conspiracy of silence about the history of Africa, its people and its diaspora. Contrary to popular opinion, this history starts *before* transatlantic slavery and includes the development of vast civilisations and major innovations in every branch of science and the arts! The fact that very few people have a clue about pre-slavery African civilisation is a clear manifestation of white supremacy, alive and well.
Luckily, a big group of London rappers are stepping up where the majority of teachers are letting us down. Big respect to Logic, Big Ben, Jaja Soze, Big Cakes, Genesis Elijah, MC D, Cerose, Big Frizzle, Wordplay, Haze, the USG crew, Rodney P and Akala for putting together a deep, memorable and inspiring track for Black History Month.
I’ve tried to transcribe the lyrics for you. Please tweet me about any mistakes!
[Jody McIntyre poem]
Australia is a black country
So’s America
So the superpower warn us of a black terror
It’s not theft if it’s yours and you take it back
Just a correction of an inaccurate fact
So I’m not afraid at the thought of immigrants
More ashamed of my quarter of Englishness
The Scots and the Irish don’t wanna take this
Being occupied by a state that is racist
Black history is a story of revolution and resistance
A salute to all our brothers
From now to Maurice Bishop
[Chorus]
This is our history
The school system made it a mystery
But it made a foundation for you and me
So we put it in our music for you to see
[Logic]
I am not a ni**er, no mistake made
Cos that’s the word the slavemaster used to call the slave
Brothers trying to kill other brothers to make the papes
The way they move I bet Rosa Parks would turn in her grave
Think of what she stood for and how she would feel
Think of Steve Biko and think of Emmett Till
And eight bars ain’t enough time on the beat
But go google every name, black history
[Big Ben]
Imagine Adam was as black as a pint of Dragon
And his descendants built guided by stars’ patterns
Pyramids, with just the knowledge of the atom
They might not tell you in your class but that’s what really happened
Before the kidnap, chains, rotting in the cabins
Your family tree’s from a root greater than you fathom
There’s real power in that blood the guns are out splashin
It’s real power when the people start to take action
[Jaja Soze]
You can’t hide the truth from me, you’re only fooling you
My blood is of a slave, shout to Shaka Zulu
No ni**er-monkey round here bruv, monkey who?
I’m medicating yoots just like I’m supposed to do
You should be a king instead of trying to shot a Q
I’m speaking to my people just like Malcolm X would do
And don’t make who you are be a mystery
Just educate yourself and learn the black history
[Big Cakes]
This is black history, this is our history
The pyramids in Africa and stars are in symmetry
Big dog you ain’t a ni**er or a nig-nog
A black man made the first clock, tick-tock
You got a watch, big up Benjamin Banneker
My brudas got ripped and shipped up from Mother Africa
Hip-hop story, lines outta rhymes
Tell you how a black man made clocks out of time
[Chorus]
This is our history
The school system made it a mystery
But it made a foundation for you and me
So we put it in our music for you to see
[Genesis Elijah]
Black magic, black clouds, black hearted
Black beauty black balled on black markets
The black comedy is tragic
That black card did nothing
They still parred him, called him a black bastard
Ain’t nothing new black, they used to call it black music
No black supremacy just equality the news is
Black’s the new black I rep that Black Panther movement
Teach black history, speak black future
[MC D]
Blacks get sold in auctions like Christie’s
But to suppress the knowledge is too risky
So instead of that the feds wanna frisk me
And handle me like they did the blacks in the 60s
But I’m a king like Tut and Shaka Zulu
I gain knowledge and I learn what we been through
Wisdom is more than the colour of your skin, true
And when you’re wise you realise you’re a king too
[Cerose]
I am Kunta, not Toby
Free thinker, you’ll never control me
Go further, Nat Turner
The massa got shot by his own burner
By any means like Malcolm
They never hear me when I talk so I’m shoutin
Back to Africa like Garvey
One love like the brother Bob Marley
[Big Frizzle]
Yeah listen to the saga
Mamadu Diallo fathered little Aminata
Taught her in the ways of the Qu’ran no drama
Eleven years old she was taken from her mother
The hardest journey ever across that great river
Three moons in that giant canoe
Now they deliver
Back to back, blacks on blacks
Look how she shivers
You wanna know how she grows
Well learn more when you read the book of negroes
[Chorus]
This is our history
The school system made it a mystery
But it made a foundation for you and me
So we put it in our music for you to see
[Wordplay]
I went and picked up a book, took an hour to read through
Learn about a party that’s empowering the people
About Huey P and Bobby Seale, the Panthers
Not the media spin, I’m reading Howard [Bingham]
How they try and discredit these guys’ names
FBI, Cointelpro, the CIA
But I never forget my man dem, bredders like Fred Hampton
Died for the rights of my people, I’d like to thank them
[Haze]
Fuckery and misery, black history
Legacies never told, youngun come and sit with me
Take the fag out the zoot, bun a spliff with me
Listen to my thoughts, find that epiphany
Yeah we are kings, genetically and spiritually
From the start to the end, I mean literally
Marcus Garvey, 2Pac and Malcolm X
Only up above lord knows who’s coming next
[USG crew]
The way they ? ? ain’t fair bro
That’s why we’re killing each other on these roads
They don’t wanna see our black seeds dem grow
They wanna see us living broke in a ghetto
That’s why I got the rifle by the window
By any means necessary, using Malcolm’s lingo
And they try and put my flag at half mast
Labelled me a mongrel, I’m black not half caste
Us fellas here with no fear like Mandela
So they’d rather see us rot in the damn cellar
But them pricks can’t harm me
Cos I’m black and I’m proud like Marcus Garvey
Can’t leave my people in the field, nah, I love dem
I lead the way like I’m Harriet Tubman
And they can’t say we’re fighting for something
Ancestors legendary, nothing above them
[Chorus]
This is our history
The school system made it a mystery
But it made a foundation for you and me
So we put it in our music for you to see
[Rodney P]
I’m a bald black bredder like Khalid Muhammed
Sayin hail up the dread as we roam the planet
In step with Imhotep, I follow the lead
Intellect like Menelek, I follow the creed
And I wanna believe, although I don’t go church
I just carry god with me know say this is God’s work
I know my livity I’m trying to achieve
And the yoot dem have to know so that they warrior breed
[Akala]
Celebrating our history is not a favour
Correcting the myths that still persist to justify behaviour
Showing civilisation before colonisation
Some would rather say the pyramids were put by aliens
Than accept that a bunch of coons ever taught a thing
Ever in human history to people with lighter skin
Diop set em straight, intelligent debate
At the Cairo Symposium, still they wanna negate
We can’t change a thing, if we don’t wanna face
Our education conditioned us to the myth of race
So you probably never learned about the Moors in Spain
Benin, or Luanda in 1668
Lalibela or the Citadel, our truths they hid it well
If we knew ourselves would so many sit in a cell?
When Europe has the influence in African affairs
That Africa has in Europe, we can talk about a world that’s fair
Check this brand new track from Rebel Diaz, produced by myself. The track takes the form of a letter to Troy Davis, and the instrumental samples Billie Holiday’s classic song ‘Strange Fruit’ (which dealt with the issue of lynchings).
Lyrics:
[Intro]
Another lynching has gone down in the US
And it’s 2011. Nothing has changed.
[Chorus]
What up Troy, I can’t believe they actually did it man
To tell the truth they ain’t never gone kill you man
You live forever in the hearts of those who fought for ya
You fought for us, you gave us strength like a true soldier
[Rodstarz verse]
I feel the pain, I feel the anger and I raise to show it
I hit the streets and spread the word so the world knows it
I’m sorry we didn’t save you
Shoulda been braver
But at times I feel alone when I’m surrounded by these strangers
2009 we first spoke, after I met Martina
I got the shirt but since then I haven’t really seen her
Been on the road with these raps just tryin a spread a message
But when I think about our talks they were such a blessing
You was in jail reading your poems on the phone
And all I did was just listen, back stage of the show
Then I heard the crazy news about a week ago
That the date had been set and they wanted you to go
11.08pm, September 21st
Never forget, my inner being still hurts
Obama stayed quiet, like he did for Oscar Grant
Clarence Thomas b**ch ass never gave you a chance
See, you was innocent, there was too much doubt
7 of 9 witnesses wanted their testimony out
They was scared, police threats, serious like cancer
But you know it wasn’t true, years later they recanted
I wish I had the answer what to do next
Gotta do more than tweet, Facebook and send texts
We need freedom, organise like Zulu
Feel the pain of injustice even tho I never knew you
[Chorus]
What up Troy, I can’t believe they actually did it man
To tell the truth they ain’t never gone kill you man
You live forever in the hearts of those who fought for ya
You fought for us, you gave us strength like a true soldier
[G1 verse]
They still lynching from plantations to the prisons
Methods changed but it’s the same system
White robes used to burn a crucifix
Now black robes sign a death sentence
Instead of Jim Crow and legal segregation
It’s yuppie condos and cuts to education
And I ain’t gotta say it Troy, you said it in your last letter
Thanking your supporters worldwide for they past efforts
More than half a million signed them petitions
The pope, the archbishop, stars and politicians
A who’s who on Twitter weighing in like Mayweather
But what happens to my bro after the storm let up
New day
Pray you in a better place
Over here we coping, tryin a channel that rage
To abolish these legal lynchings, abolish they broken system
Abolish the need for prisons, in defence of the human spirit
[Chorus]
What up Troy, I can’t believe they actually did it man
To tell the truth they ain’t never gone kill you man
You live forever in the hearts of those who fought for ya
You fought for us, you gave us strength like a true soldier
This song, first recorded in 1939, still resonates today, the morning after the legal lynching of Troy Davis by the white power structure in the US.
Many didn’t think it could happen – many thought the (black) President would intervene, or that that the Supreme Court would listen to the numerous human rights organisations that were calling for clemency. But the truth is that systemic racism and white supremacy are still very much alive, and the racist far-right is in the mood for re-asserting its authority.
Forward against the racist system, by any means necessary.
Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant South
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh
And the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather
For the wind to suck
For the sun to rot
For a tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop
Jasiri X takes the Pete Rock and CL Smooth “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y)” beat and uses it to brilliant effect, breaking down the Troy Davis case – yet another example of the deeply entrenched racism of the US ‘justice’ system.
Lyrics:
Does the court system employ racists?
Then why are so many black boys in cages?
Why shouldn’t I be paranoid of hatred?
Just look at the curious case of Troy Davis
Let travel on down to savannah
In the state of Georgia just south of Atlanta
Where they wave the rebel flag like a bandanna
Hung our ancestors then posed for the camera
A white police officer was shot and killed
Over and argument he tried stop and heal
And here’s where the plot gets real
The main suspect blamed Troy went to the cops and squealed
And with no physical evidence or weapon
Troy was arrested for a 187
He said he was innocent man was a when he was questioned
But they said that he did it who needs a damn confession
They just need is a witness they can press to cry
Tell em what to say or they arrest the guy
Then Put em on the stand and make em testify
Swear to god to tell the truth and do they best to lie
And they did so troy was found guilty
Sent to death row by police so filthy
Even though his innocence is true
We pray they don’t reminisce over you
But the truth always comes to light
And Troy Davis didn’t give up the fight
He kept filing appeals until it was reveled
The state of Georgia wants an an innocent man killed
That’s why a who’s who wants him out
cause there’s just too much doubt
And witness after witness came forward and admitted
the only reason they did it cause the police insisted
so wicked so vicious
The system’s broke so fixed
2 decades no Christmas
Execution dates 4 listed
get organized show resistance
go online sign those petitions
Black Americans know the difference
It’s a new day but the same old lynchings
I am Troy Davis
families destroyed be cases
why can’t we avoid the Matrix
instead of giving his children toys to play with
he’s waiting his execution hoping the court stays it
I’m praying and doing
we need action we need movement
cause his innocence is true
I pray they don’t reminisce over you
Really happy Cash made a video for this track! Inspiring, heartfelt lyrics. Nice to hear an up-and-coming UK rapper bringing some REAL TALK.
My little brother’s 10, I feel like I’m slacking
He shouldn’t be hearing me rap about gun-clapping
…
There’s bare mums crying round ‘ere
Cos there’s bare sons dying round ‘ere
If you think I lie, watch the news then
Every other week another ghetto yout’s dead
And I can guarantee that as I wrote this song
Another ghetto yout bled
Ghetto people, it’s time for us to rise up
And open up our eyes, cos our eyes shut
And we don’t seem to educate our minds much
Cos we’re too busy throwing gang signs up
Putting knife workin or gun blastin
We’re all pissed while the government’s laughing
Little man pay attention when I’m talkin
You don’t want your mummy paying for a coffin
Little girl stay in school, keep grafting
Allow the baggaman ting this ain’t Sparta
34 years ago today, leading anti-apartheid militant and black consciousness pioneer Steve Biko was killed by apartheid police in South Africa. In the intervening decades, political apartheid has ended and various gains have been made, but the struggle against racism, imperialism and white supremacy continues in Biko’s name.
His writings remain essential reading. A few of his best-known quotes:
“The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed”
“It is better to die for an idea that will live, than to live for an idea that will die”
“Nothing can justify the arrogant assumption that a clique of foreigners has the right to decide on the lives of a majority”
“Whites must be made to realise they are only human, not superior. Blacks must be made to realise they are also human, not inferior”
“Being black is not a matter of pigmentation – being black is a reflection of a mental attitude”
Steel Pulse released the following tribute to Steve Biko on their classic 1979 album ‘Tribute to the Martyrs’.
LYRICS
The night Steve Biko died
I cried and I cried
The night Steve Biko died
I cried and I cried
Biko, O, Steve Biko died still in chains
Biko, O, Steve Biko died still in chains
Biko died in chains, moaned for you
Biko died in chains, moaned for you, yeh
Blame South African security
A no suicide he wasn’t insane
It was not for him to live in Rome, No
Still they wouldn’t leave him alone
They provoke him, they arrest him
They took him life away
but can’t take him soul
Then they drug and ill-treat him
Til they kill him
And they claim suicide
I’ll never forgive, I’ll always remember,
Not, not only not only I, no
But papa brothers sisters too, Yeh, yeh
Him spirit they can’t control
Him spirit they can’t man-trol
Cannot be bought nor sold
Freedom increases one-hundred fold.
The system
Something’s got to be done
Straight away
The system of weak-heart emontion
They’ve got to pay
The system of backra corruption
They’ve got to pay
The system is destroying my nation
The system kill him
O, O Jah Jah, O Jah Jah
Take them where life sweeter
Send a Moses to set them free
Pharoah’s army won’t let them be
From the beginning he knew
He’d meet his end
Yes my friend
They’ll keep on ruling, all hours Jah
Jah send
I’ll tell you again
Dem take him life – Dem take him soul
Him spirit they can’t control
Cannot be bought nor sold
Freedom increases one hundred fold
The system, the system, the system
Something’s got to done,
The system where black man
Get no recoginition
The system of colour partition
The system should be dumped from creation
The system kill him
O, O Jah Jah, O Jah Jah,
Take him where life sweeter
Send a Moses, send a Moses.
Pharoah’s army won’t let them be
Biko died in chains
Moans for you
Biko died in chains all are moaning
Moans for you
Biko
Steve Biko died still in chains
Biko
Steve Biko died still in chains
Still, still in chains
Still, still in chains
Chains
