Lowkey, Mai Khalil - Ahmed lyrics

His young life was as delicate as
The wing of a butterfly
And as fragile as a spider's web
For him we cry because when he dies we all do

Did Ahmed not deserve a life?
Ahmed never hurt a fly
Ahmed never knew the politicians
He was murdered by
Certain times Ahmed wished that he could
Be a bird and fly beyond the sky
Escape the curse of birth that
He was burdened by ahmed never grew to let
Your racism internalise
Water poured from every pore in his
Corpse while the nurses cried
Ahmed was a beautiful person like you or I
But are we? Ahmed could have been a doctor
Lawyer or an engineer
Could have been a superstar but
His life ended here


Guess he was a shooting star
Burn bright and disappear
To some he seems to represent
A menace in this hemisphere
Let me here make the very
Essence of this message clear
He was precious, many die like him every year
Ahmed was a victim of
Resentment and relentless fear
Now his soul surfs the waves
I wish we could have kept him here
The sea, the sea, the sea
It holds our secrets (holds our secrets)
The sea, the sea, the sea, it holds his soul
(holds his soul) they call him Ahmed
The sea, the sea, the sea
It holds our secrets (holds our secrets)
The sea, the sea, the sea, it holds his soul
(holds his soul) they call him Ahmed

Ahmed's ancestors introduced to
Europe Greek philosophy
Brought with them irrigation
Mathematics and astronomy
Symbolically, irony of this horror
Isn't lost on me
Trying to get to Europe via Greece
Is where he's lost at sea
Ahmed not Achmed, it's Ahmed, he's that dead
Toddler lying lifeless on the beach
With his back bent arms spread
Reaching the direction that his dad went
If he made it here
Would have been bullied for his accent
He was captured by the ocean
Paralysed and frozen
While these parasites sat and typed
Analysing clothing
Now for resources we all compete beyond
The talk of war and peace
And talk of porous border there is
Corpses on the shore of Greece
They found a teddy next to
Where his body was found
The sea swallowed him
Politics has swallowed him now
And those responsible
Ahmed's ghost will follow them now
To the family all we can say
Is we are sorry he drowned because
The sea, the sea, the sea
It holds our secrets (holds our secrets)
The sea, the sea, the sea, it holds his soul
(holds his soul) they call him Ahmed
The sea, the sea, the sea
It holds our secrets (holds our secrets)
The sea, the sea, the sea, it holds his soul
(holds his soul) they call him Ahmed

They say let him drown, let him drown
Let him drown
What have you done, don't let him drown
Don't let him drown
No what have we become, don't let him drown
No, don't let him drown and they say
Let him drown, let him drown, let him drown
What have we done, don't let him drown
Don't let him drown
No, what have we become, don't let him drown
Please, don't let him drown

Ahmed could've been you
And Ahmed could've been me
We need to understand the policies that
Put him in the sea
We need to understand why it is the
Beach is full of dying kids
A colonial Metropole people want to reside in
If he did would he make it
Or fall to something that's deeper
End up like Jimmy Mubenga
Or Khaled Abu Zarifa
A picture by Javier Bauluz on
The beaches of Tarifa made me see
Some would grieve more if
Ahmed was a creature with four legs
Then they would consider him legitimate
Those like him braving barbed wire
Burning off their finger tips
Balfours alien act
That mentality still exists
Is privilege the difference between an
Ex pat and an immigrant?
For Ama Sumani and Osman Rasul Mohamed
When you take others humanity, it's only
Yours that's stunted, not a swarm
They're our sisters and brothers
That's the sum of it
The cockroaches here are in the
Media and the government not the sea
The sea, the sea, it holds our secrets
(holds our secrets)
The sea, the sea, the sea, it holds his soul
(holds his soul) they call him Ahmed
The sea, the sea, the sea
It holds our secrets (holds our secrets)
The sea, the sea, the sea, it holds his soul
(holds his soul) they call him Ahmed

Ahmed never knew the politicians
He was murdered by
Ahmed never knew the politicians
He was murdered by
Ahmed never knew the politicians
He was murdered by and they all laugh at him