Oh the homestead standing alone

with easy access through its gates,

whose people once had plenty,

now a sign of oppression.

Halahoyi, Africans, something stinks

like the ground snake, fouling the air.

I don't tell the scriptures “Try writing again”:

all other books bow before it.

Ethiopia should get involved,

find support in the Scriptures.

For a long time we've said so criss-crossing the land

in times of famine and times of war.

Go back to where you came from,

to Ntsikana's final words.

Aren't you afraid that you stripped the nation,

left it naked with only its hands for cover?

Africa, have you been trashed

like a plate of little worth?

Truly the word is departing from Africa:

I saw a baboon with dirty teeth.

Long ago the whites brought the word

but recent events confuse us:

over there it's with God, over here it flogs us.

I'm quite confused: I'd better scram.

They danced with their faith in the scriptures:

“Discard your striped woollen blankets.”

Today they're like our abandoned clay pits:

all nations gave way to their onslaught.

Let's remember the days of our fathers,

seal Tshiwo's deserted villages.

When you lived with Ngubengcuka

your mind was never black.

Ethiopia should get involved,

find support in the Scriptures.

As for me, I don't wish to mislead you

(In truth you said the Xhosa mislead).

This bible's a shade-screened leopard

in all the Creator's sorrows as well,

it helped Moses up the mountain,

dropped a grindstone and set him spinning.

Ethiopia should get involved,

find support in the Scriptures.

So wake up and talk the same language,

I don't preach a rebirth of cattle.

If only you people shared the news

of what you see of life in this land.

The Word created all these things,

when all is gone, the Word will remain.