Beyond Angola

We shall return

 

To the houses, to our crops,
to the beaches, to our fields
we shall return

To our lands
Red with coffee
White with cotton
Green with maize fields
we shall return

To our mines of diamonds
Gold, copper, oil
we shall return

To our rivers, our lakes
our mountains, our forests
we will return

To the shade of the mulemba
To our traditions
To the rhythms and bonfires
we shall return

To the marimba and the quissange
to our carnival
we shall return

To our beautiful Angolan homeland
our land, our mother
we shall return

We shall return
to liberated Angola
independent Angola.

 

From Sacred Hope – Poems by Agostinho Neto, published by the Angolan Writers Union, 1986, sponsored by the National Bank of Angola. Translated to English by Marga Holness.