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Chinua Achebe Will Have His Revenge On EC1 Lyrics
I harbour secret imaginings of social masochism and retribution.
With unprecedented religious openness
The old adage comes karmic and the third shall be first.
So maybe someday some African nation will impose a protectorate and a hut tax on Whitehall.
And maybe one day my compadres in Delhi will de-industrialize the Docklands.
So we should fear their frustration
Their Khmer anger
Shored against ruin.
We should heed their terrain
Their Himalayas shored against collapse.
Chinua Achebe let's start pointing fingers at a room of Caucasian men, somewhere in EC1.
Ho Chi Minh here come the Americans again
This time armed with cameras and arrogance in place of their mp5s.
Steven Biko, what happened to Soweto?
Your disposessed millions have retained their apartheid slum.
Wealthy millions here comes an army of landmine refugees in limbless solidarity
Come to reclaim their positive equity in Kensington and Knightsbridge, Chelsea and Fulham.
And is their still time to disencircle Bagdhad and yet tell a jingo story about the good times we had?
Forty-five minutes at the top of this skyscraper
A thousand feet
It's not enough.
With unprecedented religious openness
The old adage comes karmic and the third shall be first.
So maybe someday some African nation will impose a protectorate and a hut tax on Whitehall.
And maybe one day my compadres in Delhi will de-industrialize the Docklands.
So we should fear their frustration
Their Khmer anger
Shored against ruin.
We should heed their terrain
Their Himalayas shored against collapse.
Chinua Achebe let's start pointing fingers at a room of Caucasian men, somewhere in EC1.
Ho Chi Minh here come the Americans again
This time armed with cameras and arrogance in place of their mp5s.
Steven Biko, what happened to Soweto?
Your disposessed millions have retained their apartheid slum.
Wealthy millions here comes an army of landmine refugees in limbless solidarity
Come to reclaim their positive equity in Kensington and Knightsbridge, Chelsea and Fulham.
And is their still time to disencircle Bagdhad and yet tell a jingo story about the good times we had?
Forty-five minutes at the top of this skyscraper
A thousand feet
It's not enough.
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I imagine this song to be comparisong British colonial oppression and the attitudes the British have towards immigrants. FYI Chinua Achebe is an African political writer.
''oh, and as for the song, well, those lines were just something about how anyone stuck on the top floors of the towers woyuldn't have had enough time to undo the damage done by colonialism. which was a bit right-on and simplistic and all, but there you go.''