The Trap We Cannot See

INTRO — LOW STRINGS AND A SINGLE TALKING DRUM, SPOKEN Eighteen eighty-four. A conference room in Berlin. Men who had never seen our land drew a line through it with a pencil. That line still decides what language our children learn, what money they carry, what passport they hold. MOVEMENT ONE — HISTORICAL MECHANISMS VERSE 1 — SOLEMN, KORA AND STRINGS In Aflao on the border, Two brothers, one family name— One counts in cedis, speaks in English, One in francs, though kin and tongue the same. The Ewe walked their homeland freely Till a stranger's pencil came; Now a line runs through the courtyard, And the line has kept its claim. VERSE 2 — BUILDING, DJEMBE ENTERS They built the roads to reach the harbour, Not to reach the town next door, Grew the cocoa, mined the copper, Shipped it raw from every shore. Taught our children foreign heroes, Ruled through chiefs they chose and paid— Not a curse and not our nature: It's a structure that was made. CHORUS — FULL CHOIR It's a structure, not our failure, It was built by human hand; What was built can be rebuilt By the people of the land! You cannot escape a trap you cannot see— Open your eyes, Africa, and be free! MOVEMENT TWO — CONTEMPORARY POWER RELATIONS VERSE 3 — TENSE, DRIVING DRUMS Then the flags came down at midnight, But the structure stayed in place: Loans with strings and stern conditions, Prices set in a distant space, Money printed in another's treasury, Aid that comes and takes much more— Every year the river flowing Outward from our open door. VERSE 4 — NARRATION OVER DRUMS, HALF-SPOKEN Experts on us live abroad, Our stories told by other pens, Our brightest minds leave on the morning plane And do not come back again. Some at home grow rich by bowing— Ask the question, ask it plain: Who benefits when we believe That we're the cause of our own pain? CALL AND RESPONSE — CHOIR AND DRUMS Lead: Who sets the price? Choir: Not us! Not yet! Lead: Who prints the money? Choir: Not us! Not yet! Lead: Who writes the story? Choir: Not us! Not yet! Lead: Who will change it? Choir: We will! We will! CHORUS — FULLER It's a structure, not our failure, It was built by human hand; What was built can be rebuilt By the people of the land! You cannot escape a trap you cannot see— Open your eyes, Africa, and be free! BRIDGE — QUIET, ORGAN AND VOICE Treat the fever, miss the cause, And the sickness comes again; Heal the root and not the symptom, Change the system, not the pain. Fight on two fronts, fix within, And change the walls without— Turn the cycle into a circle Of a people rising out. MOVEMENT THREE — STRATEGIC PATHWAYS FOR SOVEREIGNTY VERSE 5 — HOPEFUL, HIGHLIFE GUITAR AND BRASS See Botswana guard her diamonds, Wealth that stayed to build the land; Process what we grow and what we mine, Trade with neighbours, hand in hand. Pay each other in our own, Build our universities strong, Let the lions be historians— We will write our own song. VERSE 6 — AGENDA 2063, CHOIR JOINS Agenda twenty sixty-three, The Africa we want, we see: Roads that join us, rails that bind us, Power, schools and industry. Not by charity or pity, Not by waiting on the sea— By design, by plan, by people, Sovereign and free. KEY LIFT — FULL BRASS, TIMPANI AND CHOIR FINAL CHORUS — TRIUMPHANT It's a structure, not our failure, It was built by human hand; What was built can be rebuilt By the people of the land! Now we see the trap that held us— Now we see, and we are free! Africa, rebuild! Africa, rebuild! Sovereign, strong, and free! OUTRO — MUSIC FALLS AWAY, SPOKEN OVER TALKING DRUM Not blame—understanding. Not despair—design. When the roots are tended, the whole tree lives. CHOIR — SOFT Open your eyes, Africa… END