Woman Lyrics
You gotta be lucky now
I was just sitting here
Thinking good and bad
But I'm the kinda woman
That was built to last
They tried erasing me
But they couldn't wipe out my past
To save my child
I'd rather go hungry
I got all of Ethiopia
Inside of me
And my blood flows
Through every man
In this godless land
That delivered me
I've cried so many tears even the blind can see
This is a woman's world.
This is my world.
This is a woman's world
For this man's girl.
There ain't a woman in this world,
Not a woman or a little girl,
That can't deliver love
In a man's world.
I've cleaned and I've fed.
And for my healing wits
I've been called a witch.
I've crackled in the fire
And been called a liar.
I've died so many times
I'm only just coming to life.
Through every man and every child
In this godless land
That delivered me
I cried so many tears even the blind can see
It sounds as a pamphletary one about the woman's condition in this world. I mean Neneh is talking to every women who have been forced to live under man's oppression without finding a space for expressing their infinity love. More specifically, she's talking about an African woman who has been chased by men who have taken everything from her except for her inner strenght. And she has been chased just because she owns some kind of mystical power ("And for my healing wits / I've been called a witch") which lets her heal people and it seems to me the men from her 'tribe' fear the popularity that she has got with this, since they would never admit to share their power with a woman 'witch'. It's a kind of jealous feeling, I think. So she's condemned to death on fire and every good things she has made must be forgotten by everyone for not making her a martyr.
"I've died so many times I'm only just coming to life."
I assume she's talking she is like Phoenix bird, not meaning she will be born again in flesh&blood, but meaning it'll always exist another women like her who will be prepaired to try to spread love around this godless land...