We Hear You by Mphutlane Wa Bofelo

We hear you Fela we hear you You say music is the weapon For the war is in the head The skull is packed with alien ideas Our jurists read expired books To pass verdicts on current affairs

We hear you Fela we hear you You say music is the weapon For the propaganda is in hymns Psalms on emotional tongues Come from broken hearts Black folks sing of white angels & see the devil in a black skin

We hear you Fela we hear you You say music is the weapon & the pub must be the place of learning For the nonsense is in the classroom The materials can’t relate to the language at home The pedagogy and curriculum can’t match The substance on the street and the matters on the shop floor

We hear you Fela we hear you You say the Zombie is in suits; wearing glasses Spotting the academic look Sitting on the throne of power Mister parliament passes laws That don’t relate to the facts on the ground

We see you Fela we see you You break free from the prison of clothes For the garments in Lagos clothing shops Are fashioned in the image of some guy in London We hear you Fela we hear you You say our language Must not mind the institutions For the social institutions Don’t mind our language You say our kind of jazz Must be the boom-bang that smash the standards For the big fight is the scuffle over perspective

We hear you Fela we hear you You say our speech must be raw & straight from our broken hearts You say the stuff in heads of intellectuals Can’t match the substance on the ground So the real war begins in messed-up heads