Your contours that mark the sand Depresses the earth into an outline You are traces of a man Hollowed out by the horror of your pain
Oh! Son of man, where is ye shame? You are bound like an ox to a chain Your body sways like a pendulum As you lower and harvest their grain
Chains bind you to your fellow men So that feet that once ran move now in defeat They motion as a reminder of your labours And the bond you have with your captors
Liberty, justice and all that was good You were made to abandon for a morsel of food "Yes Master, no Master, three bags full Master" Baa the woolly sheep bleated in surrender.
Why let the dust of your labours That fill the air with its derision Settle willingly on your once dark skin Mixing your blackness into a confusion
Black is the colour of your conscience Black was the colour of your rituals Black feet ran and black hands played Black babies were the dawn of a new age
You let that slip through your fears Your memory blurred by ashes Your brain that incinerated your courage Condemned you to the life of a savage
Rise up, son of man who fears freedom Your traces will have no roots An outline of your existence Is a hollow grave without its occupant
Don't preach the Bible as your saviour Unless you have more to offer Don't mark your history by enslavement And the heritage you were made to abandon
That chain that links your past To a future that is bleak Is a God of eternal bonds Secured by your hidden Masters
Your children dance in the shadows of your enslavement Morphing your chains into a cross A freedom founded on great men and courage Is short-lived by bitter recriminations
The ghettos, the drugs, the guns and deaths The rap that is the anthem of your anger Makes a chain between right hand and left As your youth disappears forever