I once thought sins were washed away
by the waters of the Lord
healing built from rivers
and a quiet streaming ford
Lake Victoria is in my dreams
that day I did declare
you can baptize me another way
I'll not set foot in there
Some look and see reflection
on the surface gliding by
when the sun it bounces off you
and then heads back towards the sky
but my mother rests below you
carried by Kagera's flow
when Victoria will give her up..
well this I do not know
Victoria how do you sleep
what other secrets do you keep
surface gone from blue to brown
someday I'll will myself to drown
When killers live among you
and they look you in the eye
when a child grasps an empty hand
and then begins to cry
when darkness comes and spreads not fear
but a welcome from the sight
Lake Victoria will disappear
at least for the night
Victoria how do you sleep
what other secrets do you keep
surface gone from blue to brown
someday I'll will myself to drown
I once thought sins were washed away
by the waters of the Lord
healing built from rivers
and a quiet streaming ford
Lake Victoria is in my dreams
that day I did declare
you can baptize me another way
I'll not set foot in there
by the waters of the Lord
healing built from rivers
and a quiet streaming ford
Lake Victoria is in my dreams
that day I did declare
you can baptize me another way
I'll not set foot in there
Some look and see reflection
on the surface gliding by
when the sun it bounces off you
and then heads back towards the sky
but my mother rests below you
carried by Kagera's flow
when Victoria will give her up..
well this I do not know
Victoria how do you sleep
what other secrets do you keep
surface gone from blue to brown
someday I'll will myself to drown
When killers live among you
and they look you in the eye
when a child grasps an empty hand
and then begins to cry
when darkness comes and spreads not fear
but a welcome from the sight
Lake Victoria will disappear
at least for the night
Victoria how do you sleep
what other secrets do you keep
surface gone from blue to brown
someday I'll will myself to drown
I once thought sins were washed away
by the waters of the Lord
healing built from rivers
and a quiet streaming ford
Lake Victoria is in my dreams
that day I did declare
you can baptize me another way
I'll not set foot in there
Contributed by Riccardo Venturi - 2007/9/17 - 22:59
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Note for non-Italian users: Sorry, though the interface of this website is translated into English, most commentaries and biographies are in Italian and/or in other languages like French, German, Spanish, Russian etc.
© 2004 Tom Flannery and Lorne Clarke
a SongaWeek.com production
www.rwandasongs.com
Clarke & Flannery love to hear your thoughts on the song cycle. Email them to anthracite@rocketmail.com.
Truth is, there is no explanation for the Rwandan genocide. What there is in abundance, however, is ignorance. If these songs make just one person dig a little deeper, then we've made our money back, so to speak. We've touched upon specific pieces of the horror, but don't even pretend to be able to understand it from the Rwandan point of view. We're observers from afar. Interested, heartbroken observers....but merely observers nonetheless. Please keep that in mind.
All of these songs are solo acoustic performances...recorded live with a digital 8 track studio in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The full lyrics are available, as are the complete recordings in both mp3 and quicktime formats. Notes for each song are provided, giving some insight into the creative process....and explaining where explanations are necessary. The entire project is only available via the internet. There is no "official" CD of this music. This is strictly an "online" project.
This is partly due to economics, but also because once a CD is released, it can't be changed. We're likely to add new songs here at any time.
Individual essays are also posted, because some ideas that we have probably can't be conveyed using the song form alone. These too will probably grow in time. Also, a brand new play by playwright Tom Flannery called Rwandan Eyes is available exclusively here.
Everything here is free. Listen, distribute freely, discuss.
Do everything but steal.
Tom Flannery & Lorne Clarke.
ABOUT THE SONG
However, by mid May, when over 500,000 people had already been massacred, journalists were not only writing words documenting bodies floating down the Kigara River into Lake Victoria, but now western photographers and cameramen had arrived en masse and were filming it.
At times, narrow parts of the river got so clogged with bodies that soldiers had to use large sticks to break the logjam.
So many bodies ended up in the lake that on June 17th 1994 the World Health Organization issued a press release entitled "NO PUBLIC HEALTH THREAT FROM RWANDAN CORPSES IN LAKE VICTORIA, SAYS WHO". In the first sentence the release stated...
The World Health Organization (WHO) said today that the presence in Lake Victoria of bodies of victims of the conflict in Rwanda does not pose any additional public health threat through the consumption of fish or of water from the lake.
It continued...
While the findings of the study indicate significant levels of pollution of the lake and other water sources in the affected areas with bacteria of faecal origin, there was no evidence that the situation was either new or related to the corpses.
Oh to live in a world where such releases are needed.