Sankofa
Do you know what it means
Listen to the song she sings
She flies while looking back
Displaying her colors of red, green and black
Daring to soar
Daring to remember
Looking to the future
Never to surrender
Over the Atlantic Ocean she came
To a land of beauty
A land of lies and shame
Native Americans
Robbed and killed
Guns, broken treaties
Innocent blood was spilled
Leaving the south and going north
Looking for the land of new birth
Up North is where she can be free
That’s the land for my people and me
Left plantation behind
City work
I aim to find
Told old masta good-bye
I’m moving on up to a house in the sky
No more trees
Bear strange fruit
No more increasing
Mast’s loot
No more fears
No more unprofitable years
Took jobs in stock yards
And factories
Working, praying
Sweating
For my family
Our stories
Our struggles
Our victories
Nurtured
Passed down
To a generation
Upward bound
This is Sankofa
A bird
A song
A people
Her journey.
