Momma so long ago was I
Snatched from your womb
See momma they bound me
And brought me to this land
Momma each night we breathe in your sent
Momma we hear your voice
As you cry for your children across the seas
Oh momma we feel your embrace
Each time the wind blows
Momma we work in memory of your fields
We sing in honor of your song
We sing freedom
We sing joy
We sing peace
Momma they held us captive
They raped your daughters
Momma they beat your sons
They sold your sisters
Your children,
Grand and great grand
Momma they took away the memory
The remaining knowledge of you
They taught us how to talk
And walk and dress, and look like “America”
Momma they made us believe that
The red man was evil
They took the pride of the
Bow carrying, arrow shooting red skin
And turned him into a “savage”
Momma they told us that
The natives were foreign
And that the foreign were native
They built this country
On many backs
Momma they used our blood sweat and tears as fertilizer
To build this land of “freedom”
Momma they show us how to live
Then call us animals
They say Africans are dirty
They tell us that we’re nothing
“Nigger’s” could never build
Pyramids that reach the sky
Oh no not Africans 
Momma they never told us that Africa was rich 
We were never told of the African miners and gold diggers
Momma they sucked away our identity
They took our names
They stole our respect
They corrupted our values
They lowered our self worth
They destroyed our families
Then they set us “free”
See momma they let us earn money
Then they upped the prices
Momma they made us slaves of a new plantation
Momma I saw a noose hung neck from an old oak tree
They freed us from slavery
But many of us retained the mentality
Momma they let us build communities
Then they flooded them with crack and heroin and marijuana
Momma they turned your sons and daughters 
Into pimps and prostitutes
Momma they stripped us of every ounce of culture
They shunned our African-ness  
They hated our dark skin
Momma they thinned our beautiful brown
Momma they shed so much blood
Momma they divided us 
Momma they lied to us
Momma they broke our 
Spiritual connection to you 
What will we tell our children now momma?
Momma they took the love and richness of your land
And turned it into a diseased and barren place
They stole our love our life our speech
Momma they took us from everything we know
And gave us this “America”
Momma they deemed us unworthy to sit with them

Momma
To eat with them
Momma
To worship with them
Momma 
To live with them
Momma
To speak with them
Momma
To work with them
Momma
To ride with them
Momma
To serve with them
Momma
To play with them
Momma
To paint with them
Momma
To write with them
Momma
To die with them
Momma, momma they called us nothing
They striped us of everything
So much so that I don’t remember you
I no longer feel your touch with the wind
I no longer smell your sent
I no longer hear your voice 
I no longer see your lands
I don’t remember the sand of your seas
Africa isn’t even a memory
See I was stripped of my culture
Momma I was lost along the way
Traveling down this “American” path momma
My pride was stolen
My heart was stolen
My speech was stolen
My dreams were stolen
My life was stolen
My heart was broken
My love was broken
Until all that is left 
Is this 
The shadow of a daughter 
That was once African.