One 'man One Vote Lyrics - Johnny Clegg & Savuka

Bayeza abafana bancane wema 

Bayeza abafana bancane wema 

Baphethe iqwasha, baphethe ibazooka 

Bathi "sangena savuma thina, 

Lapha abazange bengena abazali bethu 

Nabadala, bayasikhalela thina ngoba asina voti." 

(the young boys are coming, 

The young boys are coming. 

They carry homemade weapons and a bazooka. 

They say "we have agreed to enter a place 

That has never been entered before 

By our parents or our ancestors 

And they cry for us, for we do not have the right to vote.) 

Hayiyaah! 

The west is sleeping in a fragile freedom 

Forgotten is the price that was paid 

Ten thousand years of marching through a veil of tears 

To break a few links in these chains 

These things come to us by way of much pain 

Don't let us slip back into the dark 

On a visible but distant shore -- a new image of man 

The shape of his own future, now in his own hands -- he says: 

Chorus: 

One 'man, one vote -- step into the future 

One 'man, one vote -- in a unitary state 

One 'man, one vote -- tell them when you see them 

One 'man, one vote -- it's the only way 

Bayeza abafana abancane 

(the young boys are coming) 

Hayiyaah! 

In the east a giant is awakening 

And in the south we feel the rising tide 

The soul inside the spark that gives breath to your life 

Can no longer be made to hide 

These things come to us by way of much pain 

Don't let us slip back into the dark 

On a visible but distant shore -- a new image of man 

The shape of his own future, now in his own hands -- he says: 

Chorus