Diamonds of Anger - Fred Small

The boy rolls the hoop past the barricade

Pushing it fast with a stick that he made from a coat hanger

The hoop is the wheel of a rusted junkyard bicycle

The girl on the corner plays the guitar

It's a petrol can with strings of wire

She sings a song from the tribal days

But the words are new-- she sings "amandla."

Blond surfers on white sandy beaches wait for the perfect wave
The sky has no clouds at sunset they go home
The sign says no dogs or natives allowed.
Nervous white boys in combat gear
Speed through the township in armored trucks
People scatter but the soldiers run them down
Kick them until the blood runs from their mouth

[Chorus]
Crossroads
We are diamonds of anger, we are brilliant gold
Every blow makes us stronger, the chain cannot hold
We are rocks against tear gas, we are songs against guns
We are life against terror, we have already won.

The old woman waits for the broken down bus
To take her from this shantytown of tin and paper
No toilet no running water
The street is already hot
She rides to the white homes of Johannesburg
To mop the kitchen tile polish the silver
Wipe the babies she must leave by nightfall.

Sixteen on trial for plotting revolution
Charged with singing songs of freedom
Or being present when these songs were sung
Or writing pamphlets or speaking at meetings
Botha tells the whites what they want to hear
The only votes he needs are theirs
Crazed with their backs to the sea
Drunk with the fear of retribution.

[Bridge]
Black babies white babies still reach out for each other
Fingers stretching from passing prams
Eyes amazed and smiling through doors and broken windows
Straining to touch

Behind the silence of Pollsmoor Prison
Nelson Mandela reads the international press
Receives foreign visitors
The chief in exile, the lion at bay
Give up violence say the key jangling jackals
He answers let those who shoot my people
Beat with whips. torture with electrodes
Let these renounce violence and I will walk free.

Teenagers born since he was imprisoned
Hear the voice though they have never seen him
Feel the tremors of righteous fury
A vision burning a tidal wave coming
New Leaders born in the school yards and churches
Forged in the mines singing at funerals
Turning to block the blow as it's falling
Siezing the whip and standing rejoicing

[Repeat Chorus]

Disk