Scatterlings

Chorus

Bamba! Siyayilanda!

Siyayibamba siyayilanda!

Ngithi bamba! Siyayilanda!

Fetch it! Siyayilanda!

Human figures in a dream

I heard them singing "Siyayilanda!"

You've got to get up, carry on

Sing this song "Siyayilanda!"

There's a mean machine -- tear the bone clean

I'll tell you where I've been "Siyayilanda!"

Eat! Sleep! On your feet!

You're going to speak! "Siyayilanda!"

Chorus

Falling star in the night

Comfort the weeper "Siyayilanda!"

Turn to the Left, turn to the Right,

Losers, keepers "Siyayilanda!"

Hold me close, I'm trapped in

A night of seasons "Siyayilanda!"

New sun rising up ahead

Coming your way "Siyayilanda!"

Chorus

Long ago there was a sound in the night

A Kwela man singing under the street light

With a cheap guitar he gave his sorrow a smile

And he sowed his songs in the alley ways mile upon mile

Chorus

Ye hum ho la lo Kwela man

Ye hum ho la lo Kwela man

Ye hum ho la lo Kwela man

You gave it your life

Living low with the pennywhistle-tea-chest-base-gang

I followed him home and he danced as he sang

But now he's gone

Not even the slightest traces

Of a Kwela song

And the street is full of empty spaces

Chorus

Nobody knows did he survive the winding road

Did he find a song that took him back to the heartland

Here I stand lost in a memory

Of a Kwela man singing in the long gone twilight

Chorus

When I followed you home Kwela man

You filled my soul, Kwela Kwela

When you sang your song Kwela man

You gave it your life

Ye hum ho la lo Kwela man

Ye hum ho la lo Kwela man

Ye hum ho la lo Kwela man

You gave it your life

Rain forest talking to the dragon-mountain-moon

Stars infest the heavens in the southern skies

Otter swim against the river, whisper in the water

The stars are dead and what you see are shining lies

Body-smoke tie the night in a misty web of blue

Simple things are all we have left to trust

An apple, a horse, some milk and a little bread

Will help time stop slipping through our fingers

Chorus

M-oh-hum-oh

M-oh-hum-oh

What you got left to trust?

Stones in the dust!

A simple thing you got left to trust

Someone in your heart singing

Crickets learn the final chorus of their night song

Standing at your door 'cause I have nowhere else to go

Tried to fill the empty spaces with my songs

Came here 'cause I know you also sometimes feel this way

I brought an apple, a horse, some milk and a little bread

I hope I will not find you smiling in a dream

For I have come too far to face again what I have

Umbaqanga man won't you play it if you can

That special music

Umbaqanga man -- he's an African

He's got a special music

Chorus

And we'll move it, we'll move it along

African music, wherever you're from

You'll never lose it -- the rhythm is strong

Umbaqanga music will move you along

Umbaqanga man can you reach me where I am

I need that music

Umbaqanga man won't you play it if you can

That special music

Chorus

And we'll move it, we'll move it along

African music, wherever you're from

You'll never lose it -- the rhythm is strong

Umbaqanga music -- a special song

Back to Song List

Ngikhanyisele weDlozi lami

Two humans on the run

(repeat)

The autumn leaves have trooped their colours

Rumours of the battle to come

Intelligence says you have departed

But my heart cannot give up its love

I'm living through a war in peace time

Dying to get through to you

Baba noMa...

Living through a war in peace time

To get through to you

On your face, love, days and sorrow

So long we struggled on

Baba noMa...

The heart is a shattered province

Pockets of love still hold out in the ruins

Old memories sent me reinforcements

But they were ambushed on high ground

I'm living through a war in peace time

Dying to get through to you

Baba noMa...

Living through a war in peace time

To get through to you

Why do you fight like this with me now

You fill the days with such sad sounds

Baba noMa...

Ngikhanyisele weDlozi lami

Two humans on the run

(repeat)

I'm living through a war in peace time

(repeat)

Copper sun sinking low

Scatterlings and fugitives

Hooded eyes and weary brows

Seek refuge in the night

Chorus

They are the scatterlings of Africa

Each uprooted one

On the road to Phelamanga

Beneath the copper sun

And I love the scatterlings of Africa

Each and every one

In their hearts a burning hunger

Beneath the copper sun

Broken wall, bicycle wheel

African sun forging steel, singing

Magic machine cannot match

Human being human being

African idea -- make the future clear

Chorus

They are the scatterlings of Africa

Each uprooted one

On the road to Phelamanga

Beneath the copper sun

And for the scatterlings of Africa

The journey has begun

Future find their hungry eyes

Beneath the copper sun

Ancient bones from Olduvai

Echoes of the very first cry

"Who made me, here and why? --

Beneath this copper sun."

My very first beginnings

Beneath the copper sky

Lie deeply buried

In the dust of Olduvai

Chorus

And we are scatterlings of Africa

Both you and I

We are on the road to Phelamanga

Beneath a copper sky

And we are scatterlings of Africa

On a journey to the stars

Far below we leave forever

Dreams of what we were

Hawu beke Mama-ye! Mama-ye!

In the beginning

Beneath the copper sky

Ancient bones

In the dust of Olduvai

Who made us, here, and why

Remember!

Scatterlings of Africa (repeat and fade)

Ploughed the moon reached an island

Balanced on the edge of the sky

But something always stayed the same

Deep down inside

No matter where I've been the places don't count

Summer in a mountain town

No matter where I've been the places don't count

And I feel let down

'Cause nobody told me

Spirit is the journey

Body is the bus

I am the driver

From dust to dust

Spirit is a story

Body is a book

I am the writer

Together we flow

We hold on, and when the story ends

We hold on, until it begins again

We hold on, we hold on...

I never knew I had one

Till I saw yours shine

Spilling from your laughter

Sparkling in your eyes

Sharing my confusion, sharing my surprise

At finding part of me in you, alive

'Cause nobody told me

Spirit is the journey

Body is the bus

I am the driver

From dust to dust

Trying to be near you

Searching for a way

Listening to your life song

Before it fades away

We hold on, and when the story ends

We hold on, we hold on.

Spirit is the journey

Body is the bus

I am the driver from dust to dust

Now I'm falling, falling away

I hear you calling, calling my name

Spirit move on, move on

Pass my eyes on, on to the next one

I will be long gone, long gone

Across the distance, this divide

I will be with you forever

Till you reach the other side

So hold on, sing this life song

Sing "hold on, hold on, hold on

Hold on!"

Chorus

Wanderers and nomads have gone to see their chieftains

Will this be the end of the rain and the birds?

Who can send an emissary to speak to the seasons?

For the ravens and the crows already soak up the skies...

I'm digging for some words beneath the stones in Zimbabwe

I'm searching for a drum song in the jungles of Zaire

I'm groping for the blood-moon in the mountains of Malawi

Looking for the Lion of Ethiopia...

The setting dusk is darkened by the bark of the baboon

The frogs and the owls no longer call to the moon

The warlords have gathered, blue smoke hiss from teeth of chrome

And the baobab lies trembling in the boiling blood-loam

The fireplace is broken and the grinding stone too

Its million pieces flung across the plains of Africa

Each dusty fragment a seed from which grows

The memory of a debt that only you and I will know

Chorus

Seven seasoned soldiers have been summoned from Saigon

A craven walkie talkie puts their bloodshot armor on

Some drink beer milk, some drink kinky-kola

Sheep dogs live in Outeniqua

Gun dogs in Angola

Flames lick the corners of each hungry horseman's smile

They have locusts in their scabbards and deserts in their eyes

Passing through the air they leave a sea of fetid rumors

As they ride across the skyline on a secret trail of lies

Chorus

I found some words beneath a stone in Zimbabwe

I heard a distant drum song in the jungles of Zaire

The blood-moon spoke of war in the mountains of Malawi

But I never found the Lion of Ethiopia

Chorus

Mayebabo! Sengijabule kulomhlaba

Hau! Ngidlalela izizwe sengijabule kulomhlaba

Baba yithi amagoso onke kulomhlaba

Shake my way, shake!

Jealous down!