Blood and Bones - Our Native Daughters, Amythyst Kiah, Rhiannon Giddens

Blood and bones are what we’re made of

Not enough steel to reconcile

Crying out into the darkness

One sure way to feel alive

Demon mouths lined with halos

Thinly veiled, but no surprise

Rest assured, a welcomed surplus

Of systematic lies

This child ain’t mine but my hands are tied

She’s a life of bounty, and her skin is white

Under my care she’ll play and thrive

In a few years, I’ll be cast aside

I was once a noble daughter

Our kingdom spanned the breadth of Ghana

But I was captured for the silver

Sent across the sea to a land unknown

Our rival sold me to some white men

Skin as though it came from heaven

When they bound us to their will

They trapped themselves in hell as well

Blood and bones are what we’re made of

Not enough steel to reconcile

Crying out into the darkness

One sure way to feel alive

Demon mouths lined with halos

Thinly veiled, but no surprise

Rest assured, a welcomed surplus

Of systematic lies

One brother white, the other black

One brother loved and the other’s

One brother kept, the other sold

Kinship denied is kinship still

Bred in bone and bathed in blood

Two brothers begged for light and love

White father twisting his own soul

To deny what all must know

Blood and bones are what we’re made of

Not enough steel to reconcile

Crying out into the darkness

One sure way to feel alive

Demon mouths lined with halos

Thinly veiled, but no surprise

Rest assured, a welcomed surplus

Of systematic lies

Blood and bones are what we’re made of

Not enough steel to reconcile

Crying out into the darkness

One sure way to feel alive

Demon mouths lined with halos

Thinly veiled, but no surprise

Rest assured, a welcomed surplus

Of systematic lies