Impi

Impi - Johnny Clegg/Soweto Gospel Choir

Impi wo nans' impi iyeza

Obani bengathinta amabhubesi

Impi wo nans' impi iyeza

Obani bengathinta amabhubesi

Impi wo nans' impi iyeza

Obani bengathinta amabhubesi

Impi wo nans' impi iyeza

Obani bengathinta amabhubesi

All along the river

Chelmsford's army lay asleep

Come to crush the

Children of mageba

Come to exact the

Realm's price for peace

And in the morning

As they saddled up to ride

Their eyes shone with the fire and the steel

The general told them

Of the task that lay ahead

To bring the people of the

Sky to heel

Impi wo nans' impi iyeza

Obani bengathinta amabhubesi

Impi wo nans' impi iyeza

Obani bengathinta amabhubesi

Mud and sweat on polished leather

Warm rain seeping to the bone

They rode through the season's wet weather

Straining for a glimpse of the foe

Hopeless battalion destined to die

Broken by the benders of kings

Vainglorious general victorian pride

Would cost him and eight hundred men their lives

Impi wo nans' impi iyeza

Obani bengathinta amabhubesi

Impi wo nans' impi iyeza

Obani bengathinta amabhubesi

They came to the side of the mountain

Scouts rode out to spy the land

Even as the realm's soldiers lay resting

Mageba's forces were at hand

And by the evening the vultures were wheeling

Above the ruins where the fallen lay

An ancient song as old as the ashes

Echoed as mageba's warriors marched away

Impi wo nans' impi iyeza

Obani bengathinta amabhubesi

Impi wo nans' impi iyeza

Obani bengathinta amabhubesi

Impi wo nans' impi iyeza

Obani bengathinta amabhubesi

Impi wo nans' impi iyeza

Obani bengathinta amabhubesi

Impi wo nans' impi iyeza

Obani bengathinta amabhubesi

Impi wo nans' impi iyeza

Obani bengathinta amabhubesi

Impi wo nans'