Lyrics East Africa - Live at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, June 15 2007 - Gabriel Teodros feat. The New Seattle Orchestra

For Ethiopia
For Eritrea
For the whole Horn of Africa

Even though I don't speak in my mother's tongue
Let there be no confusion bout 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
Cuz I can't find the words when they say what's up
In Ameringya
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
Nah, and you don't hear about me
Bloodshed, massacre, Africa's east
The beauty and the pain of Africa's east
How many lie slain in Africa's east
The love of my people from Africa's east
Y'all I'm just another child here from Africa's east

They shot Johnny down in the streets
Cuz 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
Look, it gets deep
My cousin won't go to school
Because if she do, who knows what these cops will do
They arrest youth 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, nah 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 the 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 relearning my purpose
As energy surges
I gave up on searching
For acceptance from any culture or person
Me, hard working like a cab drive
When I rhyme right, if it comes tight it's a divine light
It's 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
Nah, nah, and you don't hear about me
Bloodshed, massacre, Africa's east
The beauty and the pain of Africa's east
How many lie slain in Africa's east
The love of my people from Africa's east
Y'all I'm just another child here from Africa's east

Thank you