I was wondering about our yesterdays, and digging through the rubble
and to say, somebody went through a hell of a lot of trouble .
to make sure that when we looked things up we wouldn't fair too well
and we would come up with totally unreliable pictures of ourselves.
But I compiled what few facts I could,
I mean, such as they are
to see if we could get a little bit of light
and this is what I got so far:
First, white folks discovered Africa
and claimed it fair and square.
Cecil Rhodes couldn't have been robbing nobody
'cause Hell there wasn't nobody there.
White folks brought all the civilization,
wasn't none around.
How could these folks be civilized
when wasn't nobody writing nothing down?'
And just to prove all their suspicions, well
it didn't have to wait too long.
They discovered there were whole tribes of people, in plain sight,
with no clothes on. That's right!
The women, the men, the young and the old,
righteous folks covered their eyes.
And no time was spent considering their environment,
Cause, Hell no, That's just wasn't civilized!
Another way they knew that folks were backwards
or at least this how we were taught
is that 'unlike the civilized people of Europe'
these tribal units actually fought!
And yes, there was some rather crude implements
and yes, there was primitive art
and yes they were masters of hunting and fishing
and courtesy came from the heart.
And yes there were medicines, love and religion,
intertribal communication by drum.
But no paper and pencils and other utensils
and these folks never even heard of a gun.
So this is why the colonies came
to stabilize the land.
Because the Dark Continent had copper and gold
and the discoverers had themselves a plan.
They would discover all the places with promise.
You didn't need no titles or deeds.
You could just appoint people to make everything legal,
to sanction the trickery and greed.
And when the natives got restless deep in the jungle,
they would call that 'guerrilla attack'
and never describe that the folks finally got wise
and decided they would fight back.
And still we are victims of word games,
semantics is always a bitch:
places once referred to as under-developed
are now called 'mineral rich.'
And still we are constantly hounded with
unity kept just beyond reach
Egypt and Libya used to be in Africa,
they've been moved to the Middle East.
There are examples galore I assure you,
but if interpreting were left up to me
I'd be swear every time folks knew this version aint mine
that's why it is called 'His story'.
Black History/The World Lyrics performed by Gil Scott-Heron are property and copyright of the authors, artists and labels. You should note that Black History/The World Lyrics performed by Gil Scott-Heron is only provided for educational purposes only and if you like the song you should buy the CD