Cabindese woman

Forgotten at all times, in all places, for so long

A treacherous independence cost you your country, your land, your honour, your blood!

Cabindese woman

Black woman who yearns so much for the sweetness of the evening, once her work is done

But even the most beautiful stars of your tortured Cabinda shine on your still hungry family.

The silence of your tears pierces the day

 The sound of your cries muffled under your wet loincloth pierces the night.

Brave woman

You face war, hunger, lack of hope with guts

You refuse to give in to despair, to the black images reflecting the dark future of your children.

Black woman, Cabindese woman

You no longer mourn the father, the husband who may have died in the war.

Gone is sure to claim your freedom of thought, to live in a liberated homeland. 

Gone for nothing to talk in the old way around a table

Without knowing that today’s wise men are sold to the highest bidder, to whoever pays cash. 

Yes, oil always wins the game; black gold is not for decolonised blacks

Deprived of their history annihilated in their memory!

Cabindese woman

The more you are forgotten, the deeper you are buried, the higher you rise. 

You are a fighter, a survivor filled with a noble resilience.

When will your fight for life end? Your hands reach out yet very undemanding. But your fists rise to the sky to claim your rights

Those of a woman, a wife, a mother

Of a Cabinda woman who would like to live on her beautiful land with a generous belly

In a Cabinda free of its sufferings. 

While waiting for this day, you pray, you hope, you pretend. 

You sing a catchy refrain for your children

For even without toys, without school and without shoes

Even when they are hungry, they have the right to believe you even when you lie

 For them you sing your vision of a bright future. Then they jump for joy, all happy

They in turn sing a song so joyous

Around the baobab tree that knows their story.

The children sing at the top of their voices to please their mother

Tomorrow everything will be better, Mama

Tomorrow we will live happily

We will eat our fill

We will be able to go to school

With a nice schoolbag or even a worn one

With pens, pencils and notebooks inside

This is what the children of these brave mothers are singing!

Tomorrow we will say thank you to your fathers

Died in battle so that our land may live,

So that the taste of freedom one day soon will delight our lips!

This is what the Cabindese mothers sing every evening 

To their children with half-full bellies so that they survive 

Thanks to the hope of seeing one day this tomorrow that seems so far away 

But dreaming of it does so much good, consoles the hunger

And then, gathered around the sacred tree

All pretend to believe in this wonderful story

Secretly say thank you to the mothers, thank you

When the children fall asleep, they dream without torment!

Women of Cabinda, exemplary women

Your courage and your tears as powerful as a raging ocean 

Little by little, you are digging this beautiful and solid path, this road to freedom!

Elodie Tshibassu-Gieskes