To the Future - Peter Brown
1. When I was just a small boy
Upon my mama's knee
She said, "Son, I can remember
When our people were free."
She said, "it wasn't paradise,
But at least it was our own.
And now when I remember
I feel so all alone
So all alone.
2. "When the white men came to Africa
And kicked us off our land
And they chained your father's labor
To this copper mining plant
And they left me this worthless land
While I was having you,
The told me I had rent to pay
For land where nothing grew.
[Chorus]
"Sing with me children
'Cause I feel so all alone
(2nd time: 'cause you know that was our home)
Sing with me children
'Cause the echo will be all that is known
To the future.
3. "Been a hundred years of suffering
And a hundred years of strife,
But a hundred years has taught us
We either suffer or we fight
And I hadn't seen your father
In over twenty years
I hardly recognised him
When he came to me in tears
4. "He had only one arm
The other had been cut off
And he had only one pound
To pay the white men off
So when they came to get us,
Our friends didn't let us down,
And they were dancing in Harrare
When we cut them all down.
5. "Comes the time we expected something
We got our independence
But that amounts to nothing,
'Cause we still can't pay the rent.
Now they ask me if I'm Marxist,
I still don't know what that means.
Just know who I am, what I got to do
So that they should let us be."
© 1986 Peter Brown