Bound to Be

Silent screams turn my head round and round

I try and block my ears

But my heart refuses to turn off the echoes,

The timeless echoes of pain.

To my Mother I'm forever bound

A cord that could never be severed at birth

A birth that never began with me

A birth that never stopped with eternity

With my cry at birth I pledged to my Mother

I will be for her, I will be for Africa.

I pledged to grow up

I pledged to be more

I pledged to rise firm

I pledged to make you proud

I pledged to protect you 

I pledged to love you

I pledged with my heart

This heart that beats for Africa

Oh! Mother, how my heart mocks me!

How heavy it beats with ridicule,

clogging my veins with every poison I ingest

I have turned away from you Mother

I have stripped you and mocked at your nakedness

I have spilled your blood with my poisoned razor tongue

I have reduced your pride to begging for scraps

I have robbed your peace, throwing it to the hyenas

And I still suckle on your breast, pledging to you

my eyes glittering with greed and malice

Oh! Mother, how my spirit haunts me!

And I hear your silence in this storm of turmoil

"I am you child, and you are me"

The pledge Mother, the pledge

It was for me, to protect me

I have sacrificed you in the altar of selfishness

And with each flame I have felt your wrath

And with each ash-drop, your mercy.