RHYTHM SAFARI

KWELA MAN

 

Long ago

There was a sound in the night

A Kwela man

Singing under the street light

With a cheap guitar

He gave his sorrow a smile

And he sowed his songs

In the alley ways mile upon mile

 

CHORUS

Ye hum ho la lo Kwela man

Ye hum ho la lo Kwela man

Ye hum ho la lo Kwela man

You gave it your life

 

Living low

With the penny-whistle-tea-chest-base-gang

I followed him home

And he danced as he sang

But now he’s gone

Not even the slightest traces

Of a Kwela song

And the street is full of empty spaces

 

CHORUS
 

Nobody knows

Did he survive the winding road

Did he find a song

That took him back to the heartland

Here I stand

Lost in a memory

Of a Kwela man

Singing in the long gone twilight