Hugh Masekela The Late [Living] Jazz Legend Performs Stimela

There is a train that comes from Namibia and Malawi There is a train that comes from Zambia and Zimbabwe There is a train that comes from Angola and Mozambique From Lesotho, from Botswana, from Swaziland From all the hinterlands of Southern and Central Africa. This train carries young and old men who are conscripted to come and work on contract In the Gold and Mineral mines of Johannesburg and the surrounding provinces and Metropolis 16 hours or more a day, for almost no pay. Deeeeeeep, deeeeeep deeeeep, deeeeeep, deeeeeep, deeeep Deeeep,deeep, deep, down in the belly of the earth When they’re digging and drilling for that shiny mighty evasive stone. Or when they dish their mish-mash-mush food Into their iron plates With their iron shovel. Or when they sit in their stinky, filthy, funky, flee-ridden barracks and hostels And they think about their loved ones they may never see again, Because they might have been forcibly removed from where they last left them Or winterly murdered in the herd of night By raving and marauding gangs of no particular origin – so we are told! They think about their land and their herds that were taken away from them, With the gun and the canon, With the collaborator and the dog And the teargas and the poison. With the Bomb and the gasoline, And when they hear that chu-chu train – Smoking and-a-pushing and-a-climbing And-a-hustling and-a-crying and-a-moaning And-a-toting and and-a-steaming and-a-crying And-a-moaning and-a-pushing and-a-grumbling And-a-moaning and-a-climbing and-a-crying And-a-screaming and-a-squishing And-ah-whooooooooo Whoooooooooo! They always cuss, and they curse the coal train, The coal train that brought them to Johannesburg. Stimela. Ahhh Long-live Bra Hugh Long-live.