Akua Naru - The Journey... Aflame lyrics

At once we were people on our land
African feet touch the sand
Free woman and man stand tall
Respond call conga djembe
We sing a song for our first born
Skin uncovered,  unashamed original names
We served god through a pantheon
Then secular world came
Some prisoners of war betrayed by
Our own others chained, sold
Stolen from the shores by a foreign
Man we never seen before, families torn
Put in chains the chattel slave trade
Black bodies chained, whipped, burned, maimed
Many tongues speaking the same pain
Confused, I can't understand a damn thing
World view rearranged, in
Elmina’s castle caged
Somebody say a ship came
Forced board, feet lusting for my soil
What the fuck is going on?


"Ain't I a woman?"
Somebody just jumped overboard
'Cross the Atlantic, skin
Branded, left stranded, laid in fractions
Heart in fragments, captured
Deemed as savage, pull my body backwards
Uh

No chords could strum the root of my pain, uh
They set the journey aflame
No chords could strum the root of my pain, uh
They set the journey aflame
No chords could strum the root of my pain, uh
They set the journey aflame
Uh, no chords could strum the root of my

White man
Crush my womb, scattered, scraped, raped
Battered another miscarriage
Another baby born to a world of shackles
Fire crackers, I'm havin' flash blacks
Middle passage
Spoon fashioned, semen, urine, dragging
Splatter 'Cross Caribbean, Carolina
Reduced to fractions
Divided by my black vagina
Enter in this battle in
This so-called "new world"
Look at this nigga-girl on Iriquois
Pequot Earth
Smile, teeth strong, assess my worth
On this auction block, they say I'm
Ripe for birth, strong stock
Look at my buttocks
Hair like wire, you need brush not
Nothin' pretty to rub hot
Behind my chest heart beats the
First seeds of hip hop
Fire, burnin' rage is gun cocked
My water breaks, the beat drops
Mic' chords bind me, stop, rewind me
Let my memories rock, enemies drop
Oh lord, let us fast-forward
Promise to let my tape rock
And it won't stop, and it won't stop
And it won't stop
And it won't stop, and it won't stop
And it won't stop and it won't stop

No chords could strum the root of my pain, uh
They set the journey aflame, uh, uh
No chords could strum the root of my pain, uh
They set the journey aflame, uh, uh
No chords could strum the root of my pain, uh
They set the journey aflame, uh, hey
Uh, no chords could strum the
Root of my pain, uh
They set the journey aflame, no, uh
No chords could strum the root of my

Uh, sometimes I want war
For these muthafuckas
And I'm restrained, nigga, negro
Colored, nigra, bitch, hoe
Mammy, harlot, minstrel aunt Jemima kinfolk
Nicki Minaj instrumental
Sista stomp hard! but we forced to tip toe
Three-fifths of a human
Two-fifths 'cause you woman abandoned oshun
Praying for Christ second coming
Jiving, shuckin' corn, word is bond
Used to sing work-songs about being free
Now freedom comes (w) RAPped in porn
Buying European wigs, Italian designers
Manolo Blahnik, Gucci, Prada
Somebody baby mama rhyme about the dollar
Identity draped in male desire
The illusion of free, but we for hire
Lost in buying power
Who got it made? Last week we was the maid
Breast feeding white babies
They grow, sell our children as slaves
Billie Holiday, hang from maple trees
A game of make-believe log on to facebook
Forget the rape of centuries
Grammar stays in present perfect
But us, we simple past on it
Degraded by our brothers
They say shake your ass on it
Constructed before the white face
Now it's music on MySpace
Body parts separated from soul
Bought and sold nothing new though
My question crucial
What's the worth of a black woman, who go
'Cross the Atlantic, stranded on plantations
Projects college loan payments
Exploited, captured and framed in
White imagination
Black male sex arrangements christian names
Master’s house the first stage
That made my body famous beauty caged in
Tainted behind the lust for blue eyes and
Blond manes and I'm saying
It started with that slave ship
That set the journey flaming
Set the journey flaming
They set the journey flaming
It's the journey aflame

No chords could strum the root of my pain
They set the journey aflame, uh
No chords could strum the root of my pain, no
They set the journey aflame, no, no
No chords could strum the root of my pain, uh
They set the journey aflame, yo, no
Uh, no chords could strum the
Root of my pain, uh
They set the journey aflame, hey

Journey aflame, uh no, no
The root of my pain
They set the journey aflame journey aflame
They set the journey aflame
Uh, who's gonna tell my story?
Who's gonna sing my pain?
Who's gonna tell my story?
Who's gonna sing my pain?
Who's gonna tell my story?
Who's gonna sing my pain?
Who's gonna tell my story?
Who's gonna sing my pain?
I'm gonna tell my story
I'm gonna sing my pain, uh
I'm gonna tell my story
I'm gonna sing my pain
I'm gonna tell my story
I'm gonna sing my pain
I'm gonna tell our story
I'm gonna sing our pain pain, uh, uh huh
I'm gonna tell my story
I'm gonna sing my pain
I'm gonna tell my story, y'all
The journey aflame