Fred Small - Diamonds Of Anger lyrics

The boy rolls the hoop past the barricade Pushing it fast with a stick that he made from a coathanger The hoop is a wheel of rusted steel from a junkyard bicycle The girl on the corner plays the guitar It's a petrol can with strings of wire She sings a song from the tribal days But the words are new -- she sings "amandla." Blond surfers on white sandy beaches Wait for the perfect wave The sky has no clouds at sunset they go home The signs say no dogs or natives allowed Nervous white boys in combat gear Speed through the township in armored trucks People scatter but the soldiers run them down Kick them until blood runs from their mouths Crossroads We are diamonds of anger we are brilliant gold Every blow makes us stronger the chain cannot hold We are rocks against tear gas we are songs against guns We are life against terror we have already won The old woman waits for the broken down bus To take her from this shantytown of tin and paper No toilet no running water The street is already hot She rides to the white homes of Johannesburg To mop the kitchen tile polish the silver Wipe the babies' bottoms she must leave by nightfall Sixteen on trial for plotting revolution Charged with singing songs of freedom Or being present when these songs were sung Or writing pamphlets or speaking at meetings Botha tells the whites what they want to hear The only votes he needs are theirs Crazed with their backs to the sea Drunk with the fear of retribution Crossroads We are diamonds of anger we are brilliant gold Every blow makes us stronger the chain cannot hold We are rocks against tear gas we are songs against guns We are life against terror we have already won Black babies white babies still reach for each other Fingers stretching from a pa**ing pram Eyes amazed and smiling through doors and broken windows Straining to touch Behind the silence of Pollsmoor Prison Nelson Mandela reads the international press Receives foreign visitors The chief in exile, the lion at bay Give up violence say the key-jangling jackals He answers let those who shoot my people Beat with whips torture with electrodes Let these renounce violence and I will walk free Teenagers born since he was imprisoned Hear his voice though they have never seen him Feel the tremor of righteous fury A vision burning a tidal wave coming New leaders born in the schoolyards and churches Forged in the mines singing at funerals Turning to block the blow as it's falling Seizing the whiphand standing rejoicing Crossroads We are diamonds of anger we are brilliant gold Every blow makes us stronger the chain cannot hold We are rocks against tear gas we are songs against guns We are life against terror we have already won We are life against terror we have already won