Be Free, My Country

You are never a slave until you allow your spirit to be enslaved.This is a performance piece I wrote for the people of Jamaica. Stop suffering, don't bow down to difficulties of our past and present.Only then can we truly hope for a better future.

I have a story
'Cause mi need fi explain
How Massa take mi from mi glory
And tie me up wid chain.

A whole a two hundred year him keep me
But is a lifetime worth of pain
When him rape, beat, murder mi identity
'Til not even mi know mi own a name.


Although mi story might full wid  pain,
Time fi dash way dis yah ball and chain.
I am the resilient spirit in all a we,
The spirit of Jamaica saying "BE FREE"


By time Massa say him gone,
Mi did waan leave.
"Back to Africa as one!",
Dat mi shout back a Garvey.

'Merica, Hingland, all Canada mi run
Jus like mi friend Mister Stanley.
Mek dem vex? No Gordon House him sidung
And hear, "Five flights a day!" from Manley?



Yes, mi did run way pon jet plane

But, Time fi dash way dis yah ball and chain.
I am the resilient spirit in all a we,
The spirit of Jamaica saying "BE FREE"



Independence baby, not even learn fi stand
When rising oil prices knock me down!
In Manchester, is bauxite we mine from di land
But in the seventies, all a dem pick up and run!

A dat deh time tings get bad
When pon the shelf not even piece a bun
And mi, tun 'gainst mi own a bredda like mi mad
When Uncle Sam gimme gun!



By these hands too many were slain,

But, Time fi dash way dis yah ball and chain.
I am the resilient spirit in all a we,
The spirit of Jamaica saying "BE FREE"

Who is Massa now, in dis yah my country

Yes, it no matter how mi reach.

Is Massa, the withering economy

Or the IMF with them kin teet?

Is is bredda 'gainst bredda

Or rich versus poverty?

What is it now trying to

Bring my soul back to slavery!

Stop look round fi summadi fi blame!

Time fi dash way dis yah ball and chain.
I am the resilient spirit in all a we,
The spirit of Jamaica saying "BE FREE"

© Chereese La-Vonne Ricketts 2013