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He's held the country's reins for 10 to 40 years
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He's elected with 99 percent
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His ethnic group is called pureblood
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His country's supposedly democratic
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Opponents, critics, it's either death or political exile
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He's been in power since his putsch, his coup
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He got rich but his country got into debt
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Western powers are annoyed
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Bankrolled by his oil and metal revenues
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Mafioso collusion, military-financial
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Nepotism, spies and mercenaries
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President for life is his mandate
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He leaves power through natural death or assassination
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When it's peace, leaders lead
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When it's war, it's war that leads
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Here like this, we feel it too
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N'dengue uàba, foolish woes
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Play well, Africa wake up
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N'dengue uàba, foolish woes
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Play well, Africa awaken
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And when the father dies, the people cry
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The radio milks the fear, the enemy's inside
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Bitterness and terror drive peace away
_____
Roadblocks go up, the neighbor turns suspect
_____
They declare a dead city and a curfew
_____
Embassies fill up and all the whites flee
_____
There are rumors of looting, rapes, shortages
_____
People are scared, the nation watches peace die
_____
Days of strikes, lynchings more and more frequent
_____
Civil war's imminent, worldwide news on the airwaves
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The UN worries, starts talks
_____
Should we act? Abstain? Are there interests?
_____
The cease-fire's broken by the belligerents
_____
There's no management left as the country slips into decay
_____
War's here, everybody feels it
_____
Once again it'll be death, the death of innocents
_____
My heart's broken, love can't be heard
_____
Oh my heart's broken, love can't be heard
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Wake up Africa, Africa wake up
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Aiué nakuetenu, have pity on me
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Have pity on the people, ai ué nakuetenu
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My beloved, I'm writing this letter hoping you can read it
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Men are dumb, Africa's beautiful, don't make the mistake of hating her
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With you I wanted to grow old on these hills, in this house
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The horizon ends here, I've come to sing my eulogy
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It steals the curve of your hips from me, the softness of your lips
_____
Without respite, Umugwaneza light of all my dreams
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I have to leave this harbor, my soul leaves its body
_____
But my love I'll always stay two cable-lengths from your heart
_____
I'm leaving in the next few minutes
_____
My grief's heavy, I hope you'll get this letter
_____
I write these hopeful lines, rivers of doves
_____
Towers of dreams, brief truces in quarrels
_____
It's too late, soldiers swarm the plot
_____
My beauty, I'm writing words of love that I scatter
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On this notebook, I end my life and this poem
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War caught me off guard before I could say I love you
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It's pain, it's pain nakuetenu
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It's pain Africa, have pity on the people
_____
Have pity on me, it's pain
_____
Nakuetenu nakuetenu, have pity on the people
_____
Africa wake up, di di di di di di, aiué
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It's pain nakuetenu, have pity on me