Niger Delta

NIGER DELTA BLUES (PAIN AND RIVERS OF OIL)

THE NIGER DELTA BOYS

You can go to the Niger Delta By the bights of Benin You can go to the Niger Delta Where blood flows like a river Where the young men carry guns You can go to the Niger Delta Where the milk sucked from the mother’s breast Is full of blood So the children are now blood suckers You can go to the Niger Delta Ah! Soldier don’t kill them all Guns blazing over my hut Rivers of blood and oil Oh no it really hurts. I can’t take my mind off the pain Or for a moment forget. The waste of a generation Or the carnage and destruction Wrought by the vagabonds Who sit in aso rock As I tell tales of destruction.

PAIN I now suck blood from my mother’s breast And blood from her vagina I now suck blood from my mother’s breast As I see the soldiers raping my mother I now suck blood from my mother’s breast As I see them rape my mother land I now suck blood from my mother’s breast As the blood mix with the oil I now suck blood from my mother’s breast As I see a crowd of naked women Raped to death by the soldiers I now suck blood from my mother’s breast Oil from my land but I remain poor Cries from my land But God will never hear Please leave the boys alone To fight for justice For justice has run away from this land. I now suck blood from my mother’s breast As the Government stabs my mother land to death Only blood comes out of her breast And blood from her vagina A rape the sun will record And I will carry my gun and fight

I now suck blood from my mother’s breast

THE LAND Oh land of my ancestors Caressed by the mighty ocean You always stood by the sea Till the white man came to see Oh land of my ancestors Now everything is destroyed The fishes now drink oil and blood I will machete the oil merchants Who trade our land for silver and gold But I will remain bold Oh land of my ancestors.

SEAS

I beheld in a night vision I saw people swimming in rivers of oil And their eyes bathed in blood So they could not see the future Only the past with many pains And the fence that pointed to the future Was made with bows and arrows For only war awaits them If they swim to the other side

I will swim to the other side I will see the end of this story O Delta boys let us fight again

But there is no hope on the other side Cuase the blood is as long as a river And the story goes on and on And from generation to generation Tale of one woe after the other Done in this riversides of history

I will swim to the other side I will see the end of this story O Delta boys let us fight again

So Delta boys let us fight again For the sun may shine tomorrow Or this river of blood and sorrow will keep flowing. Oh Boys of the Niger Delta

THE HIDEOUT

The prisoner raised his sword to the sun And swore by the sun and moon. That the sun will be full of blood And the air full of ghosts By the time it was noon day He could see the god of justice in the air. But the god closed his eye to justice

The prisoner raised his sword to the sun And swore by the sun and moon. This time there shall be no Chevron Or no Texaco Or no vampire sucking oil and blood From his father land For they must all go Or Nigeria will be in flames

TEARS

Tears and pains burn my body And in this enclave of hell I know I will never get help Cries of freedom from the children The hangman waits with tears and chains To put my heart in many pains And I sing to the ground again But the ground cannot hear my pain Cause it can only hear gunshots and wounds Done by the soldiers mean guns And now they negotiate again Let us see if we gain Else we will fight again

BLOOD

Blood is the beer my fathers drink When the white men came to town Blood is the beer my fathers drink He came with dane and guns Blood is the beer my fathers drink And said sorry to the future And sorry to the children Blood is the beer my fathers drink He took a shot at the sun And said where is the oil Blood is the beer my fathers drink He destroyed our land for the oil Blood is the beer my fathers drink And said let us start chevron and Texaco And then when I fight for my right He gives me blood to drink Blood is the beer my fathers drink And I will not stop Till the ground takes my blood And we will tell tales of the future When everything goes round And the money and the oil While I drink the blood Blood is the beer my fathers drink

I had a dream I saw the Niger Delata crying And with it women in chains I asked them why They said the ground ahd told many stories Of the robbers that stole their Lands away And when the men went to war They left their women in chains I had a dream And I saw the land bleached with blood And the white men feasting on oil And a vulture flew bye And the spirit of Tom Polo Hiding, pervading the air Is there no solution to the problem?

DREAMS

I had a dream I saw the Niger Delta in all its fury The River goddess stood still With tears in her eyes For all her children were dead And the ones alive were mere skeletons Skeletons on the sands of time Me and my oil stories to tell But say a sad story Oil merchants in oil ships Carried away from our shores While the children cry all day I will create a legend on these shores

OIL

We will bath with blood And in the evening sing songs of war For that is all we know In this land of many oils As the soldiers go bye

NAKED I saw a naked woman Bath with blood And I wondered why For the land has been raped and stripped naked And she was crying For they were her children’s blood And the ground said sorry But she refused to be comforted And Nigeria said sorry But she said she will revenge The woman is the Niger Delta

DANCE

Tears from the Niger Delta Messages of sorrow Echoing all over the land Guns and mathetes all mix in the air Forming a chorus Of voices and spirits Zombies and skeletons walking about To the music of guns in the air And the air breathing dust Let us eat flesh and blood like vampires Let us feast on vliolence For nobody cares So the dance goes on

DANCE OF THE NIGER DELTA I can feel the pulse of the Niger delta Beating in my bones To songs of carnage and destruction To songs of women bathed in blood And the soldiers swam into the waters And drank the blood of Tom Polo’s boys And they laughed in joy While the boys hid in the bush A piece of time and history passed bye Allways to happen again this blood shed For time must always repeat itself Re-echo the voice of hatred Reawaken the gods of the land To behold the white men walking about And the dawn of another day Echoes and voices Singing to the air We have blown up an oil well So the gods will be angry When they seek vengeance again