DOGON
Dogon
Inna Central Mali with the origin Nommo
straight from Kemet with the Habe lingo
Dogon
Fled from invaders yeah everywhere you go
From Libya to Burkina Faso
Bisected by the Bandiagara Escarpment
Sandstone cliffs 90 miles of enforcement
Southeast Seno-Gondo plains how we found it
Northwest of the cliff bandiagara thighlands
Dogon villages thousand years ago established
Bare refusal to convert inna land uncharted
600 meters high under cliffs we guard it yeah
The Niger River clear the water yo we got it
CHORUS
Came STRAIGHT TO THE Mande near Bamako
First village inna Kani Na they nah go
To Sanga yeah they did go
From the east to the West Mossi Bobo
Gurma Yoruba the people of the plateau
700 villages up on the cliff so
In the summer they sleep upon rooftop yo
Climbing the cliffs for pigeon guano
where the Tellem artifacts they are stored now
Bark of baobab fearless over plains Bongo
Millet cultivates over there so
So now you know ….
CHORUS
NOMMO
NOMMO
TO MAKE one drink
Nommo
Masters of the water
Nommo
Nommo
To make one drink
Nommo
Monitor and teacher
Nommmo
Power of the nommos is the power in you
I invoke you plead to Amma for you
4 pairs of twin transformed were you
One of them rebelled against the order true
Amma restore balnce and sacrifice you
Scattered you throughout the universal Rootsy
Every where a piece fell altars grew
Ah so the Binu shrine commemorate you
CHORUS
You inhabit a world around a star
You descended in basket from above
With fire and thunder life principle law
You fed your people yeah the universe had drunk
First spiritual leader now the Hogon
Ancestral spirits fishlike when they come
Human torso with a tail for the ocean
PO TOLO
Po Tolo
White speck of light
Star in the night
The dogon priest say
There is a star in the sky
That eyes can’t see
Companion to Sirius Light
Extremely small and heavy
50 year orbit been observing
Astronomers had seen it was wobbling
Smaller than earth but enlighte
CHOURs
Smallest seed and star
White in color from afar
How did they know who you are
They could not believe African heart
300 times harder than diamonds
3000 times more dense than diamond
Spinning on its axis 23 timesss
In a minute generate magnetically heights
Two stars dance around each in a line
You have the lion share you rule the night
Every 50 years stars they align
When you rise anew you flood the Nile
CHORUS
AWA LEBE BINU
Awa Lebe Binu
hidden societies yes they must continue
Awa Lebe Binu
Older than the mason yeah
Spiritual jujitsu
I say the Awa they deal with the dead
Re-order the spitiural forces instead
That were disturbed by the Nommo death
Old ancestor with great importance
You dance with painted masks you dance with all
78 masks among the Dogan in all
Lead our souls through the crucial passage
So we may become like them
Lebe is the Earth God
Agricultural cycles we love Jah
Chief priest the Hogon give us words yeah
Lebe shrine, altar with bits of earth up on it
Encouraging fertility in the land in the region we live
Lebe visits in the night
Purifiies and infuse I life
Just guard the purity of the soil
Let there be drought and famine no more
Binu is totem life in sacred places
Spirit communication and ancestor worship
Your shrines hold the spirits of ancestors
Who lived before makind
You emerges as an animal sometimes intercede on our behalf through the crime
With many signs and mystical symbols
Accept our sacrifice
May our vision never cease
HOUSE OF WORDS
In the House of Words
We discern the Truth
We discern the Truth
In the House of Words
Problem solve the root
In the house of words
Clarify the truth
In the house of words
In the house of words where the people learn and the truth affirm and we duck and turn so we taciturn
We in turn higher self no return no adjourn
evil get overturn, soil upturn that is my concern
Spirit twist and burn knowledge that we ah earn we ah dreadlock no perm
owl nocturne
Prodigal son out pon the return
Blaze green herbs yeah big like a fern
Sometimes joyful and sometimes stern
Guard ring keep me safe from the germ
Duppy flee and the vampire squirm
When we splurge
yeah coming like the Rings of Saturn..
CHORUS
Togu Na House of Mother Ntu Da
We and Jah
Warrior reason bout martial law
Logical and factual
Ubwenge yeah we ah lawgiver
Like the kodzidan inna Ghana river
Words I eat when it’s time for dinner
Focus pon the inner focus pon the inner
Man and man ah chant so we layout the plan from where we began cause I know that we can in the house of my clan from the Sirius land
earth we span spread out like a fan
everything criss we don’t need no scan
miles I ran when they took a sedan
Real wordsmith man ah fisherman
no spam no scam come check the anagram
Mars is the arm and the arm is the ram
ying and yang like a time boomerang
When they do it for the gram…hexagram
From earth we sprang low tones we sang
Listen to the gang yeah led by the lamb
Open the dam behold diagram
We nuh fear no fang they can keep all the glam
We nuh eat no ham and we nuh push no prom
Ace the exam ca wisdom we ah cram
Treasure like a pearl in a clam
Kind of like the the samurai sword in Japan
Yeah, can’t decipher our slang
RASTAFARI no hunger pang
Well the Fire will burn and my feet they stamp
Yeah words are coming like the light from a lamp
They waan supplant and try transplant , yeah
we are the branch and the root and fruit of the great avalanche
Don’t come come slant
Words are the plants
Like ladders and a ramp
Life they grant
Words life they grant …
CHORUS
MOONS & ORBITS
Moons and Orbits
Moons and Orbits
You were given all the wisdom and the knowledge
Moons and Orbits
Moons and Orbits
You were given all the information guarded
You saw the rings of Saturn from longtime
Ice crystals and dust in a long line
Collecting light like we collect manna
Clear water from the depth, quanta
Frozen rings fire-white like magma
Reflect the sun in an honorable manner
Infinite loop and the quantum physics manor
Pineal pinwheel of life
CHORUS
You always did told me ‘bout the moon intention
Gas giant fifth planet from the sun
63 moons, 4 are giant
Way before Galileo and European
You knew of the existence 4 rocks around 1 rock
Larger than Mercury rock and ice block
Hundreds of volcanoes and ocean nuff
Mountains higher than Everest and up
CHORUS
Orbits on the go
Sun in the middle, yeah
round and round we go
ah so we go
Dazzling shimmering the star light
Zenith will past by in a short while
Same motion and same time
Spinning and spinning til we collide
Yeah
CHORUS
KANAGA MASK
He He He
Kanaga
Down there in a dama
Kanaga
Found there in the Sanga
To enhance the prestige of the deceased
Geometric patterns inna holy symmetry
Symbolize creation first human being
Dama dance build one bridge who can see it
Without the dama those who passed can’t cross it
Fundamental law in the reverence of the sweet
Kept in cave far away from pestilence and heat
Transport the souls of my ancestors in peace
CHORUS
Double bar cross vertical elements
From the tips of horizontal bar precise elegance
Upper cross bar is the sky
Lower one earth firmament
Black and white blue and red
Face rectangular, turbulent
Representing a bird
Creative force permanent
Arrangement of the universe
6 day period for the dead
To the spiritual realm
End of mourning determinant
Few know the ritual part
Save the elders and hermitage
Knowledge held by leaders in the heart yes it’s kept
passed along verbally to the ceremonial adepts
Protective for those who try and intercept
Trembling arms outstretched like Amma never slept
You come from the northeast
Male and female the one priest
Man and nature the great feast
visible and invisible seat
constant motion between these
bush and village ever replete
Matter in motion offbeat
manugo sugo on repeat
drumming from the dune don’t compete
Dama ground spotless so clean
sine wave shape of the whole scene
Sisters of the mask fertility
Powers of life viability
Life out of death ability
Straight from the bush tranquility
Southwest virility