East Africa Lyrics

Tadias, you Ethiopian man?

Yeah, what are you you?

Yeah, me too

No you're not, Amerinya tichilalehi?

Tinish, tinish

Tinish, tinish? Boy you should learn!

Even though I don't speak in my mother's tongue

Let there be no confusion to where I come from

You couldn't tell, huh?

I'm Ethiopian

Born in a foreign land, Scottish & Irish dad

He had more Indigenous roots further back

I barely knew 'em though

Grew up mostly at my momma's pad

And used to get clowned when I went to class

For speaking with an accent

So when I went back home

I only spoke English

Got deep in my reading

Watched TV too much

And lost the language

It sucks

Because I can't find the words when they say what's up

In Amerinya

Here in America we live isolated

Or in tight-knit communities

You could find me on the outside usually

Looking in just praying y'all could use me

East Africa, these songs are for your peace

They shot another child in the streets

Somebody in the crowd threw a rock at the police

And you don't hear about me

Bloodshed, massacre, Africa's east

The beauty and pain of Africa's east

How many lie slain in Africa's east

The love of my people from Africa's east

I'm just another child here from Africa's east

They shot Johnny down in the streets

Because somebody in the crowd threw a rock at the police

They arrest children who just want peace

And my poor momma now she just can't get to sleep

It gets deep

My cousin won't go to school

Because if she do, who knows what these cops will do

They arrest children after taking they shoes

Walk 'em to a prison camp for trying to go to school

The media is ruled

You can not trust the news

They jail journalists for trying to tell the truth

And I think of Emu, my auntie that I barely knew

You think I'm safe here but I wish I was out there with you

Because I question what can one song do

10,000 of youth locked

Hundreds have been shot

In less then a year god

I only know a small part

Breaking my heart

Continents apart

They shot another child in the streets

Somebody in the crowd threw a rock at the police

And you don't hear about me

Bloodshed, massacre, Africa's east

The beauty and pain of Africa's east

How many lie slain in Africa's east

The love of my people from Africa's east

I'm just another child here from Africa's east

I'm a child of the horn

From the day I was born

This pain I have worn

Families war-torn

You have been forewarned

From the soil of Asmara

To Addis Ababa

I will always ride for you

Study, work, rhyme for you

You are all born royal

It shows in your walk

Oromo to Anuak

Out here in the blocks

We scatter but not lost

Seattle where cash rules

Somali they feel it too

May these words touch you and bring truth to the surface

With every cut deep I'm revealing my purpose

As energy surges

I gave up on searching

For acceptance from any culture or person

Hard working like a cab drive

When I rhyme right, if it comes tight it's a divine light

Not mine, but ancestors inside

And future children that wish to see life

They shot another child in the streets

Somebody in the crowd threw a rock at the police

And you don't hear about me

Bloodshed, massacre, Africa's east

The beauty and pain of Africa's east

How many lie slain in Africa's east

The love of my people from Africa's east

I'm just another child here from Africa's east