The Boys in Slums

We in ghettos, we feel our feelings

Rich in the big homes can't feel our feelings

They think we lost our way

and forgot their behaviors made us change

We turned our backs on everything for change

Jail is our home but every chain is broken

In hardship we stay together as a crew

Each night we gather for funerals

No love to old men with Benjanins

Only slangs are our smiles when we gather and talk

We love funny stories when we lie to each other

We got no one to share our stories with

Everything has a beginning like raising a little baby

He will once find himself alone in a room

Our location to search is smoke in the air

No one can tell us anything, no ears for counselling

We pray three times a day

Lord, protect me from the powerful hypocrites, lead my way not to jail today

We are slaves without hard working

We are captives of our past

We believe in God above presidents

Our fathers work hard and taste their sweats

The powerful from the hills suck blood from our veins

Our silence does not mean, our heads are empty

It seems like we were born cursed

But blessings are always in our shadows

No one knows what we went through until they climb to the top of the mountain

And they go down to the valleys

No one brings us the salvation

Nothing is going well, the blind can see

Each one of us can dream in middle of night

Dear Lord, get me out of the darkness

But we see ourselves alone in darkness

We remember the good friends we have lost

In the evenings, we stand at the street walls

The faces turn ugly to us, we hate them

This life has its own secrets

We don't know what secrets others keep

We don't care but we can't let ourselves down

We are the boys in the slums

We in ghettos, we feel our feelings

Juvens Nsabimana