The boy rolls the hoop past the barricade

Pushing it fast with a stick that he made from a coathanger

The hoop is a wheel of rusted steel from a junkyard bicycle

The girl on the corner plays the guitar

It's a petrol can with strings of wire

She sings a song from the tribal days

But the words are new -- she sings "amandla."



Blond surfers on white sandy beaches

Wait for the perfect wave

The sky has no clouds at sunset they go home

The signs say no dogs or natives allowed

Nervous white boys in combat gear

Speed through the township in armored trucks

People scatter but the soldiers run them down

Kick them until blood runs from their mouths



Crossroads

We are diamonds of anger we are brilliant gold

Every blow makes us stronger the chain cannot hold

We are rocks against tear gas we are songs against guns

We are life against terror we have already won.



The old woman waits for the broken down bus

To take her from this shantytown of tin and paper

No toilet no running water

The street is already hot

She rides to the white homes of Johannesburg

To mop the kitchen tile polish the silver

Wipe the babies' bottoms she must leave by nightfall.



Sixteen on trial for plotting revolution

Charged with singing songs of freedom

Or being present when these songs were sung

Or writing pamphlets or speaking at meetings

Botha tells the whites what they want to hear

The only votes he needs are theirs

Crazed with their backs to the sea

Drunk with the fear of retribution.



Crossroads

We are diamonds of anger we are brilliant gold

Every blow makes us stronger the chain cannot hold

We are rocks against tear gas we are songs against guns

We are life against terror we have already won.



Black babies white babies still reach for each other

Fingers stretching from a passing pram

Eyes amazed and smiling through doors and broken windows

Straining to touch



Behind the silence of Pollsmoor Prison

Nelson Mandela reads the international press

Receives foreign visitors

The chief in exile, the lion at bay

Give up violence say the key-jangling jackals

He answers let those who shoot my people

Beat with whips torture with electrodes

Let these renounce violence and I will walk free.



Teenagers born since he was imprisoned

Hear his voice though they have never seen him

Feel the tremor of righteous fury

A vision burning a tidal wave coming

New leaders born in the schoolyards and churches

Forged in the mines singing at funerals

Turning to block the blow as it's falling

Seizing the whiphand standing rejoicing



Crossroads

We are diamonds of anger we are brilliant gold

Every blow makes us stronger the chain cannot hold

We are rocks against tear gas we are songs against guns

We are life against terror we have already won.



We are life against terror we have already won