Awa!

Awa! Awa! Do not trust the white men,

you shore-dwellers!

In our fathers' day,

white men came to this island.

"Here is some land," they were told,

"your women may cultivate it.

Be just, be kind,

and become our brothers."

The whites promised, and all the while

they were making entrenchments.

They built a menacing fort,

and they held thunder captive

in brass cannon;

their priests tried to give us

a God we did not know;

and later they spoke

of obedience and slavery.

Death would be preferable!

The carnage was long and terrible;

but despite their vomiting thunder

which crushed whole armies,

they were all wiped out.

Awa! Awa! Do not trust the white men!

We saw new tyrants,

stronger and more numerous,

pitching tents on the shore.

Heaven fought for us.

It caused rain, tempests

and poison winds to fall on them.

They are dead, and we live free!

Awa! Awa! Do not trust the white men,

you shore-dwellers!