Africa – a song to sensitize…

Posted on 23/05/2018 by Vitus Danaa Abobo

“AFRICA”
Text of Luciano Somma
Music of Fabio Volpe
Ed. AGOSMUSIC- Vignola (Modena)

Sguardo di ragazzo dalla pelle scura
Solo la miseria vedi intorno a te
Sogni la tua barca che ti porti via
Verso il tuo destino che chissà com’è.		A dark-skinned boy’s look
All you see around you is misery
You dream of your boat taking you away
Towards your destiny, which nobody knows what it will be.
Troppa fame
C’è nella tua Africa
Terra che profuma di mistero
Brucia senza scampo
Già da secoli
Questo continente troppo nero		There is too much hunger
In your Africa,
Earth that smells of mystery,
It’s been burning without escape
For centuries
This continent too black.
Eppure canti
E la tua musica va
Oltre il cielo oltre il mare
Ma chi t’ascolterà
Tu lo sai che però
La tua vita da vivere
Irta e piena di ostacoli
Clandestina sarà.		And yet you sing
And your music goes
Beyond the sky, beyond the sea,
But who will listen to you ?
And yet you know that 
Your life that you have to live,
fraught and full of obstacles,
Will be clandestine.
Brucia come brucia
La tua Africa
È una beffa il sole da lassù
Padri missionari
Per te pregano
Mentre troppi sono I tuoi tabù.		Burns as it burns
Your Africa !
The sun from up there is a mockery !
Missionary Fathers
Pray for you
Even though too many are your taboos.
E ti chiedi spesso che sarà domani
Vedi un cielo scuro, scuro più di te,
e negli occhi cresce la malinconia
mentre solo Dio ti può dir perché.		And you often ask yourself what will be tomorrow made of.
You see a dark sky, darker than you,
and melancholy grows in the eyes
while only God can tell you why.
Troppo fame …There is too much hunger …

2 thoughts on “Africa – a song to sensitize…”

    1. Hello Evans. This song was composed by two persons from the North of Italy who are involved with ministry among the migrants. Their song expresses where the African migrants come from… from a land where there is hunger for so many, a land that has been suffering wars and corruption for so long… it expresses nevertheless the natural optismism and joy of those migrants, even though they know very well that they will never really make it. The song is a melancholic cry towards the condition of African migrants and at the same time a call for all Italians (and others beside them) to try and understand better the roots of the problem and start mobilizing. Last but not least : this song is poetry… not easy to understand, even less to translate, especially for a foreigner, even though our only Italian confrere revised my translation.

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