My skin is black
My arms are long
My hair is woolly
My back is strong
Strong enough to take the pain
inflicted again and again
What do they call me
My name is AUNT SARAH
My name is Aunt Sarah

My skin is yellow
My hair is long
Between two worlds
I do belong
My father was rich and white
He forced my mother late one night
What do they call me
My name is SAFFRONIA
My name is Saffronia

My skin is tan
My hair is fine
My hips invite you
my mouth like wine
Whose little girl am I?
Anyone who has money to buy
What do they call me
My name is SWEET THING
My name is Sweet Thing

My skin is brown
my manner is tough
I'll kill the first mother I see
my life has been too rough
I'm awfully bitter these days
because my parents were slaves
What do they call me
My name is PEACHES



Lyrics submitted by Golgotha

Four Women Lyrics as written by Nina Simone

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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Four Women song meanings
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    General Comment

    I think first the song is about the need for freedom in different ways.

    Verse 1 - Aunt Sarah My skin is black...My back is strong / Strong enough to take the pain / It's been inflicted again and again

    That is probably a reference to slavery and the post-slavery situation most blacks faced where only menial, laborious jobs coupled with little respect were available to them. "It's been inflicted again and again" means the pain is not only physical, but also emotional, and it manifests itself in different ways over different generations.


    Verse 2 - Saffronia My skin is yellow / My hair is long / Between two worlds / I do belong / My father was rich and white / He forced my mother late one night

    I think the correct name is "Saffronia", not "Siffronia" as stated in the current lyrics. The name Saffronia would be a play on the word Saffron (the spice). When cooked, saffron gives food a golden-yellow hue. Her skin is yellow, so the Saffron reference is fitting.

    Saffronia also seeks freedom; as a person of mixed birth or mulatto, she is trapped between two worlds -- not quite black and not quite white, and is accepted by neither. Her birth was the result of her mother being forced, and therefore not being free ("My father was rich and white / He forced my mother late one night").


    Verse 3 - Sweet Thing

    My hips invite you / And my lips are like wine / Whose little girl am I? / Well yours if you have some money to buy

    Sweet Thing is promiscuous and it might be said sexually liberal. In reality, however, she is in sexual slavery -- she is like property -- she "belongs" to whoever has enough money that night to "buy" her.


    Verse 4 - Peaches

    Peaches (not "Egypt" as the lyrics state) looks around and sees how persons in her generation and also persons who came before her were treated.

    My manner is tough / I'll kill the first mother I see / Cos my life has been too rough / I'm awfully bitter these days / because my parents were slaves

    It's not that Peaches is an inherently violent person, but she must have a tough exterior to survive and overcome the treatment that is meted out on her. She still sees slavery in its many forms today and is bitter, because her parents (i.e. ancestors) were slaves, and that by virtue of that history and the color of her skin, she is basically relegated to that position today.


    Well, that's what I think. <3 Nina Simone stephanie elise~*

    steliseon April 26, 2009   Link

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