Malagasy Uprising

I was born in Malagasy, it’s an island I am told

But I grew up in the highlands and I never saw the sea

The French called it Madagascar and they made the place their own

But it’s the only place on earth I’ll ever be.

By 1947, the farmers had had too much

In the Malagasy Uprising they stormed and killed twenty men

But when the French had responded, and they were done and said

There were over one-hundred thousand Malagasy dead

The Malagasy Uprising, now seventy years old

The Malagasy Uprising, I believe everything I’m told

That if you try to push back, no matter what you try

Your loved ones gonna die

They burned my mother with a bomb, they through my sister from a plane

The French proved very civilized with their terrorizing flame

The farmers they rose up no more, they began their work at dawn

And what had lived on in their spirits faded and was gone

But years have passed and now at last I can grow rice on my land

And Jacques Chirac apologized, a thief washing his hands

And Malagasy still lives on, an island I am told

But I still have never seen the sea and now I’m more than old

I still live in a colony, strip-mined of its pride

I still live at the mercy of a man I’ll never see

And I’ll die here in Madagascar, the island where I hide

And I’ll die here in Madagascar, the only place I’ll ever be

The Malagasy Uprising, now seventy years old

The Malagasy Uprising, I believe everything I’m told

That if you try to push back, no matter what you try

Your loved ones gonna die

The Malagasy Uprising, now seventy years old

The Malagasy Uprising, I believe everything I’m told

That if you try to push back, no matter what you try

Your loved ones gonna die