Lyrics
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
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
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
Your loved ones gonna die