LALUKE

Máami, Baami.
Listen to your own child, I plead.
Don’t give me away to the hands of Oba Ikú.
Máami, From your womb to my birth,
You caged me.
Under your bosoms, my wings were clipped.
In your embrace, I was held down.
Baami, when will you let me go?
I’m like an Antelope, watched by a hunter.
To be caught, to be fed to the hyena of our land.
Ah! Máami! Baami!
The heavens have heard my cry.
At noon, I become like the birds of the sky.
I shall fly and fly and fly.
To my lover, Oba Ìyè.
I shall fly.