Lyrics

[Verse] She is the Jaliyaa She did not leave us to die in the burning and ransacked Villages. The Mandinka and Fula She did not leave our souls to rot in the bellies of sharks The Tiliboo & Tiligi She picked us up and out of the bile and vomit and the blood of our prayers Streaming profusely down the sides of our faith She landed us gently on our New beginning while clothing our nakedness in the shadows of her smile, she Was our death and resurrection of Jesus began A strange and difficult existence in the crack of the whip in the rage of the overseer In the lashes shredding and cutting into his Virgin birth The primitive, The primitive and crudely crafted Drums throbbing and pulsating, and contradictions dancing And she is chanting whose children are these? Moving and feeling through the high register and Subtle words of New Orleans And the Red, and the Green, and the Yellow Bandanas flowing and strolling High in the Wind Some called it Spanish. Some called it Creole. Some called it French She called out Bamboulal Congo. Calindal. Ju Jun The Ring shout. The Circle dance. A free day Some free time, Some free time to call on our science To call on our Mathematics. To construct our Cipher to genius To self-image. To memories. Moving in and out of this counter clockwise motion Swaying in Rhythm. Feet stomping the earth. Swaying in time Feet stomping the earth Answers back: in the voices of our choirs Our Churches, Our Gospel is where she baptised us in the harmony In the melody of Field songs, work songs And secret songs of the Mississippi Delta and the blues Striking a familiar chord in the Clickety clack. Clickety clack. Clickety clack of the train wheels moving Us up North to Memphis and the honky tonks To Kansas and the boogie woogie To St Louis and the rag time And to Chicago and the funky sound Of our circular breathing that taught us how to swing And to sing in the scat of jazz and the Razz matazz Of be bop and the developing magic of Hip Hop And the Blood of Biggie. And the tears of Tupac forever resting in her sound She is our Music. She is She is our Dance She is our Art She is our Freedom She is She is She is