Fatoumata Diawara & Lauryn Hill - Black Woman

Woman cry

Give life
Mother Mary and baby the burden she carry all time
Woman cry
When give us life
And she begs He forgives us the sin and the sinners all time, whoa

Foreign man took me from land
Banish my name, I survived all the same
Enough commotion
Way across ocean
Through whip a chain I survived all the same
So them a go make war before we free
Why them a go make war before we free
So them a go make war before we free
Why them a go make war before we free

Tied my neck
Ship it don't wreck
Bind me to tree I survive they will see
Whip they crack
Scar me pon my back
Soon we gone see who survive make us free
So them a go make war before we free
Why them a go make war before we free
So them a go make war before we free
Why them a go make war before we free

Follow follow
People they know they follow
People they know they copy
People all up in my grotto
They see me like a genie try to keep me in a bottle
Petty petty people keep them incommunicado
They tie you up in strings
They play n***** like pizzicato
Lose sight of the picture scripture now they not so steady
Meanwhile I'm like Curtis Mayfield getting people ready
See into the future then cut through like a machete
Or cutlass, all these trappings leave these n***** gutless
You can't make moves for justice
You can't make no adjustments
Drowning in corruption Charlie addict to convenience
Now they got you caught up & calling freedom extremists
We're not in agreement, I won't lay down politely
I closed my mouth for years and they still tried to fight me
I sat down on the sidelines and they still tried to bite me
They think they buried my career and promoted my peers to spite me
But they can't tell me nothing Charlie they don't underwrite me
I've had a lot of money thrown at me, none of that shit excites me
It's just another kind of case to get up in my psyche
To use me as an instrument to further push their puppet show
But I'm not inexperienced and this not my first rodeo
I'm not so shallow Charlie, I call it too precisely
Separate bone from marrow, so much soul that they dislike me
Intuitives, Charlie we be like fugitives
Until the universe responds to show them who the student is

Woman cry (Woman cry)
Give life (Gives us life)
Mother Mary and baby the burden she carries all time (Burden she carries)
Woman cry (Woman cry)
Gives us life (Gives us life)
And she begs He forgives us the sin and the sinners all time (Begs He forgives us)

So them a go make war before we free
Why them a go make war before we free
So them a go make war before we free
Why them a go make war before we free