AFRICA MUST WAKE UP
DISTANT RELATIVES
Featuring K’Naan
[JR.GONG INTRO]
Morning to you Man,
Morning to you Love…
Hey
I say
I said
[JR. GONG CHORUS 1]
Africa must wake up
The sleeping sons of Jacob
For what tomorrow may bring…
May a better day come
Yesterday we were Kings
Can you tell the young ones
Who are we today?
Yeah now, (x2)
[NAS VERSE 1]
The Black Oasis
Ancient, Africa the sacred
Awaken
The sleeping giant
Science, Art is your creation
I dreamt that we could visit Old Kemet
Your history is too complex and rigid
For some western critics
They want the whole subject diminished
But Africa’s the origin of all the world’s religions
We praise bridges that carried us over
The battlefronts of Sudanic soldiers
The task put before us
[JR. GONG CHORUS 2]
You hear me out
Africa must wake up
You sleeping sons of Jacob
For what tomorrow may bring…
May a better day come
Yesterday we were Kings
Can you tell the young ones
Who are we today?
Yeah now, (x2)
[NAS VERSE 2]
Who are we today?
The slums, deceases, AIDS
We need that all to fade
We cannot be afraid
So who are we today?
We are the morning after
The make shift youth
The slave ship captured
Our Diaspora
Is the final chapter
The ancestral lineage
Built pyramids
America’s first emigrant
The King’s son and daughters
From Nile waters
The first architect
The first philosophers
Astronomers
The first prophets and the doctors
Was us
[JR GONG BRIDGE]
Now can we all pray
Each in his own way
Teaching and learning
And we can work it out
We’ll have a warm bed
We’ll have some warm bread
And shelter from the storm Dread
And we can work it out
Mother Nature feeds all
In famine and drought
Tell those selfish in ways
Not to share us out
What’s a tree without root
Lion without tooth
A lie without truth
You hear me out
[JR. GONG CHORUS 3]
Africa must wake up
You sleeping sons of Jacob
For what tomorrow may bring…
May a better day come
Yesterday we were Kings
Can you tell the young ones
Who are we today?
Yeah lord,
Well Africa must wake up
You sleeping sons of Jacob
For what tomorrow may bring…
May some more love come
Yesterday we were Kings
I tell you young blood
This world is yours today
(Translation) Oh ye people, restless in the refusal of peace,
and when a man chooses religion, aren't you the ones to kill him?
And when a country is built, aren't you the ones to tear it down?
And when one attempts to tell the truth, aren't you the ones to cut him down?
[JR. GONG CHORUS 4]
I say
Well Africa must wake up
The sleeping sons of Jacob
For what tomorrow may bring…
May a better day come
Yesterday we were Kings
Can you tell the young ones
Who are we today?
Yeah now,
Well Africa must wake up
The sleeping sons of Jacob
For what tomorrow may bring…
May a better day come
Yesterday we were Kings
Can you tell the young ones
Who are we today?
Who are we today?
Morning to you
Morning to you Man
Morning to you Love…
