Stories of men hauled from rose beds in the dark of night

Our ancestors lacked wit, whim or even the gift of foresight

Somehow those battles were lost before they had even begun

They writhed and fought till moral and physical strength was gone

Chained, caged, deemed as lesser beings by intricate captors

Villagers to be betrayed by emperors, as long as this would last for

To The Man, their freedom, worth no more than nickels and dimes

Slaves are made when freemen see hopes of freedom sublime

 

Yesterday’s slaves were slaves by deprivation of comfort

Yet the modern day slave remains in bondage of comfort

Cravings leave us hooked and sinkered by luxuries of all sorts

Comfort leaves us with no fight for true freedom about us

Technology has hurdled us all into unhealthy enclaves

Becoming the chains on the wrists of the modern day slaves

And as the powers that be no longer directly oppress us

We embrace complacency and ignorance as consensus

We demand for answers simply because we feel an aftershock

Yet what are the demands of a slave but mere baby talk?

If we truly believe in democracy as one of the divine masterworks

Couldn’t we have prevented the match from lighting the fireworks?

The Man acts as though he does not condone extremism

But yet enjoys seeing Africa suffer from hapless consumerism

Our consumption is still based on The Man’s own production

We must learn to see his gifts as an enslavement of seduction

Every second of each day, we lose a fight we are not aware of

The tragedy in expecting to always be taken care of

What then was the benefit of repeated struggles for liberation?

If freedom be so willingly forfeited by a future generation

The beating heart of imperialism never for once ceased its throbbing

If Africa barely grows yet The Man finds not this as disturbing

Her children are still in chains as long as they remain dependent

Now made into slaves of comfort in the guise of independence

Our rulers were complicit in yesterday’s captivity of our freemen

The sparkle of trinkets were but the call of yesterday’s demon

Power propels today’s rulers willingly put in positions to lead us

Vulnerable men, now victims to very harm that greed does

Why trust in beings like ourselves to revive us

By now we should know they all are slaves just like us

We are nothing more than objects of amusement to The Man

Nothing more than pawns ready to do the biddings of his demand

Fighting yesterday’s slavery was once perceived as a losing battle

Alas today’s freedom has become the poisoned apple

Yesterday’s men fought for lost liberty against powers of slavery

To reclaim freedom through blood, sweat and bravery

The modern day slave knows not that he is still in a man in chains

For every second he is complacent, The Man keeps making gains

In forgetting that the right to true freedom must always be defended

The modern day slave forgets that in fact, slavery never ended