Once in a while we get some traditional, home grown Mozambican music on the radio. Not hip-hop covers by Mozambicans, but more traditional African music. I used to love when it came on the radio because its happy and fun to listen. I used to because now I can fully understand the lyrics of these songs. They range from just absolutely bizarre to slightly disturbing.
One such music the other day was a full choir of people singing the happiest song I ever heard. After asking three different kids to verify the lyrics I discovered they went something like this:
Don’t beat your mother. I said don’t beat your mother.
Don’t beat your mother because then you father will have nobody to hit.
Very tragic, but not really uncommon in the culture here. While abuse is not permissible the assumption is she probably did something to deserve it. The next day there was another song that caught my ear. It was a man singing with a choir to back him up. I don’t remember word for word, but it was something along the lines of a man talking to his wife saying “You'd better cook food. If you don’t I’m going to take you back to your father and ask for your sister in exchange”.
Trust me, that second sounds a lot more uplifting when you hear it.
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