Father Africa! At a token ignorance,
You have given your inheritance:
To strangers you gave so much.
White fellows who did not eat in our dish.
Behold, with some sham laughter,
They transacted for few daughters;
They brought clothes and rums and guns
To shackle away your sons.
Father Africa, foolish you!

Lo! See Mama Africa's cry
Her hapless tears can not dry
On her beautiful black dimples.
Oh Africa, chaos ripples.
See your sons brutally unfair
Taking hostage His own kin at warfare,
Selling them at ludicrous token.
Oh Africa, your woes betoken!

The sun rose in great grief
And shambled to rest in dumb disbelief,
The rivers - pensive in their banks.
Our follies deserve no thanks;
Africa sold her pride at Twenty Pounds,
Her offspring shackled to foreign grounds
On a fettered peregrination to the coasts,
Where they await shipment to wicked hosts.

Father Africa, foolish you!
Had those tokens of Twenty Pounds