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Bam bam dee dah dah,
Chorus:
Listen more often to things than to beings
Ancestors breath when the fire’s voice is heard
Listen more often to things than to beings
Ancestors breath in the voice of th war.
Verse1: Those who have died never never left,
The dead are not under the earth
They are in the rustling trees,
They are in the growing woods
They are in the crying grass
They are in the moaning rocks
The dead are not under the earth, So..
2: Those who have died have never never left,
The dead have a pact with the living
They are in the woman’s breast,
They are in the wailing child
They are with us in the house,
They are with us in the crowd
The dead have a pact with the living, so…
Structure: Intro, chorus, verse 1, chorus, verse 2
Improvised chorus based on echoed/overlaid phrases and rhymns
In the African world view, the invisible world of spirit, man and the
visible world of nature exist along a continuum and form an organic
reality. The same is true of the relationship between past, present
and future. In Birago Dlop’s poem Breaths we are reminded of this
continuum
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