I love Johnny Clegg

[spideyj]

Johnny Clegg is a South African musician who was born in the UK but grew up in southern Africa. He sings about his love of Africa, about the need for racial unity and about other African issues. He was one of many artists who fought to end apartheid, the practice of racial segregation in South Africa.

Anyway, this song just played on Launchcast, and I feel like it somehow expresses some part of why I need to go to Japan. How does a song about Africa lead me to Japan? Well, my heart will never be fully at home here in the States... Africa evokes a longing for other places, other ways of thinking... I want to live somewhere where people understand that there are many ways of viewing the world, of understanding each other and their relationships, of valuing children, family, money, friendships, communication, etc.


Copper sun sinking low
Scatterlings and fugitives
Hooded eyes and weary brows
Seek refuge in the night
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
African idea
--make the future clear
--make the future clear
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
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!