🎵 AFRICA FOR AFRICANS Inspired by Martin Delany

🎵 AFRICA FOR AFRICANS
Inspired by Martin Delany (1812–1885)
Composer: Cassan Kimani 🇰🇪
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🎚️ MUSICAL DESIGN (EXACT)
• Genre: Militant Conscious Hip-Hop × Roots Reggae × Spoken Word
• Tempo: 80 BPM
• Time Signature: 4/4
• Key: E minor
• Riddim Style:
o Steppers reggae kick (marching feel)
o Heavy sub-bass (deliberate, militant)
o Snare on 3 (hip-hop backbone)
o Nyabinghi drums layered in chorus
o Sparse minor-key horn stabs
o No glossy synths — raw, grounded
Mood: Commanding. Strategic. No apology.


🔥 LYRICS
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🔔 INTRO (Spoken Word – no drums)
Freedom without power
Is permission waiting to be revoked
Martin Delany knew that early
(Beat drops)
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🎤 VERSE 1 – ORIGINS
Born free Black in a hostile land,
Knew liberty without power don’t stand.
America spoke freedom, then tightened the chain,
So he turned to Africa, mapped the terrain.
Africa for Africans—said it straight,
No white approval, no second-rate.
Surveyed the coast, the soil, the plan,
Nationhood first was the radical stand.
Self-rule over sympathy, strength over plea,
He saw no future in begging to be.
Not waiting on laws written by foes,
Build your own power—history chose.
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🎶 HOOK
Africa for Africans
Mind, land, governance
No permission, no disguise
We rise organized
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🎤 VERSE 2 – STRENGTH
He understood freedom is structure and land,
Not promises shaken from empire’s hand.
Taught self-reliance, discipline, command,
A people must govern or be governed by man.
He spoke nationhood before it was safe,
Before slogans, before debate.
Economic vision, political spine,
Sovereignty first—everything align.
No savior complex, no liberal wait,
He knew power delayed is power too late.
From soldiers to workers, he called the frame:
Control your destiny or repeat the pain.
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🎶 HOOK
Africa for Africans
Ownership, confidence
From Delany’s time to now
We don’t ask—we build how
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🎤 VERSE 3 – LIMITS / WEAKNESSES
But separation sounded cleaner on page,
Harder in chains built of debt and wage.
Repatriation missed global reach,
Capital don’t care where the body sleep.
Spoke strong for men, less room for class,
Women and labor left in the past.
Nation without systems stays fragile inside,
Borders alone don’t neutralize the tide.
Didn’t see empire evolving its form,
From whips to contracts, from guns to loans.
Later generations had to expand the lens,
Because capitalism don’t end at the fence.
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🌉 BRIDGE (beat strips to bass + drum)
Power today is continental
And global at the same time
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🎤 VERSE 4 – MODERN PAN-AFRICAN DIRECTION
We take Delany’s backbone, widen the plan,
Africa for Africans—redefined stance.
Not just relocation, but coordination,
Trade, tech, policy, federation.
Diaspora linked, not displaced,
Capital flows back into African space.
Land rights, industry, currency strong,
Unity built where systems belong.
No romance—execution is key,
Power organized intentionally.
From culture to code to continental play,
That’s how Pan-Africa wins today.
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🎶 FINAL HOOK (EXTENDED)
Africa for Africans
Systems over sentiment
Same fire, evolved design
Same struggle, sharper mind
(Repeat & fade)
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🔔 OUTRO (Spoken Word)
Delany named the spine
We must build the body
(Nyabinghi drums fade out)