Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Asmera, Khartoum, Harare, Hargeza, Mogadishu, Kigali, Kinshasa, Dar es Salaam, Lagos Accra, Dakar, Kampala, Lusaka, Johannesburg, Durban, and Pretoria, Freetown, Cape Town, Cairo, Casablanca Tunis, Algiers, Tripoli, Luanda, Bamako, Maputo, Abuja, Kumasi, Yaounde, Mwanza, Dodoma, Niamey Ouagadougou, Juba, Lilongwe, Bujumbura, Bangui, Brazzaville, Mombasa, Lomé, Bissau, Djibouti, Monrovia...
City to city, whole continent, Africa
Unified especially in the minds of Diaspora
Slums to the village, Townships to the gritty core
To refugee camps and lands plagued by war
Youth that don't speak their language no more
Ancestors kidnapped off shores
Empires built by work that's forced
For hundreds of years there's an African source
For all american culture exports
There's nothing more beautiful than Black to me
Nothing more complex than our history
Sankofa followed me since they first said go back
And get what you lost, fractals in a cross
Every time I rhyme I'm carrying a torch
Can't shake it
It's more sacred than I could say
In some ways, a stage is the only place I'm safe
To shine all ways with my true spirit face
Mulatu Astatke taught me bout grace
I'm still learning, may my actions give thanks
For all those who came, and walked through the flames
Carried scars and the pain and lived anyway
Who passed on a joy deeper than any shame
We are healing in public
You call it a game
I want my heart to touch yours and to break all chains
Free the land, free the people, may the borders erase
To build a future, know from where you came