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Tapestry

from Late Convert by Sam Nabi

/

lyrics

What's your background? Tell me where you're from
It's awesome to see some colour in this white kingdom
One thread in the tapestry shining in the sun
I'm woven into this culture but I feel so othered

Great Uncle John did the family genealogy
Set me down upon his knee and told me 'bout the family tree
My roots go back to Robert The Bruce
King of the Scots, so that means I'm nobility too

But recently I heard some news that left me mighty confused
See, Robert conquered villages and kept the women to use
He spread his seed through the sword and all of those youth
Lived fatherless, these branches gave bitter fruit

I got a lot of good men in my lineage
Saw their tombstones and tried to picture how they lived
One was the captain of a ship, riding the waves
Then I realise he traded bottles of rum for slaves

Thank Queen Victoria and British imperial greed
For giving my Pakistani family the chance to succeed
You see, they got protection for their loyalty
My ancestors working as tools for their oppressors

So when a future generation's opportunity
Is shaped by days reciting God Save The Queen
Of course my father's father joined the Royal Air Force
Moved up to Manchester, starting having porters and pork

The borders of war inflicted an unspeakable horror
So he was grateful to escape and see the Liverpool port
It was there he met a woman, an adventurous sort
They sailed away and made a new life on Canadian shores

Now let me double back and follow yet another path
That thrill-seeking woman also had an immigrant past
Russian Jews, persecuted, so they up and quit it
Fled to Great Britain which was somewhat less antisemitic

Thus two branches of my ancestry
One fleeing from oppression, one loyal to royalty
Joined hands and hearts, now grafted together
A new land, a new start, a new family

Well there was just one hitch when they arrived on Turtle Island
They didn't know that this land had been home to utter violence
Colonial advancement left the native voices silent
My grandparents were immigrants and settlers, like I am

credits

from Late Convert, released October 25, 2016
Beat by REY TOPOL (soundcloud.com/rey-topol)

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Sam Nabi Kitchener, Ontario

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