Journey of a Rhythm

Journey of a Rhythm
Author

Theo Semper

Release Date

Friday, February 26, 2010

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Do feel that?
Do you feel my rhythm?
I know you hear it
But do you feel my rhythm?

My rhythm goes back, way back
My rhythm flow deep
Deep in the Nile
Where it twists and turns and falls
Over the Victoria Falls
And empties into the sea

My rhythm shifts and sifts
Through the desert sands
As it heads south
Trying to escape the oppressive beats
Of the rhythm from the North
Trying to escape the oppressive beatings
From the rhythm of the North

My rhythm is deep
Deep in the jungle
Where it lives for two thousand seasons
Where it grows stronger
Where it becomes sweeter

My rhythm has a color
It is Black

My rhythm has a voice
It is Swahili
It is Xhosa

My Rhythm has a home
It is Africa
It lives deep in the Fifth grove
Ask Armah. He knows
My rhythm has a home
It is Africa

My rhythm welcomes your rhythm to its home
Your rhythm is welcome
Because it is tired
It is in need of a new beat
It is in need of a new soul
It is in need of new souls
But my rhythm welcomes your rhythm
Cause my rhythm wants to dance and make sweet music
With your tired old rhythm

But neither you nor your tired rhythm
Want to dance with me
And my sweet rhythm
No. Not you

Your rhythm is about possessing
About controlling
You want to possess my rhythm for your own
You want to represent my rhythm as your own
My sweet Black Xhosa rhythm
My sweet captivating Swahili rhythm

Instead of captivating
My rhythm becomes captive
Captured by your greed
Seized by your need
To be the boss
The be the big drum
The big bass
In my sweet captivating rhythm

So my rhythm is on the move again
Not by choice
My rhythm forwards on in captivity
No longer captivating
Just captive
But sweet none the less

My rhythm finds its soul
Deep in the belly
Of the packed windjammer
Bound and chained
Chained and bound

But my rhythm finds its soul
As the packed windjammer
Ride the waves
And the rhythm of the rolling waves
Becomes my new rhythm
The soulful rise and falls
The jazzy highs and lows
As it rides the Windward Passage
My rhythm becomes more soulful
With every rattle of the chains
My rhythm becomes more soulful
With every crack of the whip
My rhythm becomes more soulful
With every breaking wave
My rhythm becomes more soulful
My rhythm catches the blues
The Rhythm and Blues

My rhythm finds a new home
It is in the Caribbean
Where it is welcomed by a new rhythm
The rhythm of the Amerindian people
It is a new rhythm that makes sweet music and dances
Together
My new rhythm is sweet

My new rhythm still has the blues
Captivity blues
But my rhythm finds a new voice
A sweet singing voice
Sweet singing voices on Massa'a plantation
Defiantly sweet through the whipping
Defiantly sweet through the screams
My rhythm has a new voice
It sings Kum by yah

My rhythm finds a new beat
The chop, chop chopping on Massa's plantation
Deep in the bottom of the Caribbean
My new rhythm is calypso

It is getting sweeter
My new rhythm is Soca

My new rhythm is freedom
The rhythm of the Maroons
The rhythm of a runaway slave

My new rhythm is revolution
The rhythm of Tousaint
The rhythm of Bustamante

My new rhythm is repatriation
The rhythm of Garvey

My rhythm has a new beat
The rhythm of the Ghetto uprising
My new rhythm is reggae
The sweet rhythm of freedom
Redemption song

My rhythm is on the move again
It finds a new home
My rhythm lives in America
Captive no longer
Cause my rhythm catches a ride
On the Underground Railroad
For the long, long ride to freedom

My rhythm is still sweet
My rhythm is still strong
My rhythm has to be strong
Cause my rhythm is a freedom fighter's song
My rhythm is Malcolm's song
My rhythm is Martin's song
My rhythm is Mandella's
My rhythm is Thurgood's song
My rhythm is Dubois' song
My rhythm is Fredrick's song
My rhythm is Mary's song
My rhythm is Harriet's song
My rhythm is Barrack's
My rhythm is a freedom fighter's song

My rhythm has a new beat
It still has the blues
The rhythm and blues
It still dances with the sweet soca
It still scants with conscious reggae

My rhythm catches a fire
And it burns deep
Way deep
From the Nile to the Cape
From the Horn to the Door of no Return
From the bottom of the Caribbean
To the skyscrapers of the Americas
And now it is burning deep, deep within me

You feel that?
That is my rhythm

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