Let the waters of Africa sound!

God and the nation speak in unison.

Let the footpaths sow unity's seed

from here to far-off Tugela.

Unity, black workers!

I lack clay and grease to shape it.

Hurry up: see eye to eye,

clear the scrub and we'll move on together.

The courts of law have torn to shreds

the colour bar for workers.

The stench is a spearthrust enticing

black nations to come together.

Parliament's on the hunt

for laws that will oppress us.

Wake up: we're nearing the ford

and you haven't put on your beads.

Black nations must come together.

Let the voice of the workers be heard

dancing before the gates of Zion:

we're not witches, so we won't burn.

Let the voice of the workers be heard,

let them reclaim their rights:

advance enlightened, offspring of Phalo,

heirs to the soil of far-flung Africa!

Parliament's on the hunt:

where are the black nations’ leaders,

broad shoulders bearing scorn

so we the people are crowned?

Unity's strength indeed,

a nation of nobles nurtured by nobles;

even sucklings respect their fathers.

Peace, diggers in Africa's ditches!

Welcome, Professor D.D. Jabavu,

B.A. with an antelope's guile,

you've earned a mark of distinction;

your speech in East London delighted me.

You criss-crossed the country delivering talks

on the way we Africans live;

you took long voyages over the oceans,

kite with a home on the moors.

We're oppressed! We develop! Mercy!

All the time our minds develop.

So says Professor D.D. Jabavu,

beckoning those who took to the hills.

Zulu and Xhosa, Sotho, Swazi and Coloured,

you're all invited without exception.

What kind of nation are you whose milk

lacks strength to reach the milksack?

Unity, black workers!

so you reclaim your rights,

bellow your lungs out

as if you were white;

your minds at least were never black:

barriers forced you off the path.

Huku! Now's the time, Phalo's cattle!

We'll seal Tshiwo's deserted villages!

Dr Rubusana, roadside diviner,

wails in a mountain cave,

he says our nation's progress

must be driven by our own leaders.