The People's Court: Parts I and II [Spoken word] - Mutabaruka

THE PEOPLE'S COURT: Part I
By Mutabaruka

Sung introduction:
"Better must come, better must come,
Better must come, better must come,
Better must come, better must come,
Better must come, better must come..."

Judge 1,000 Years:
Order! Now my court is in session.
Will you please stand.

First, allow me to introduce myself.
My name is Judge 1,000 Years
Some people call me Judge Better Must Come.
I am from Africa and I come to try all you politicians for selling out black people.
In my court, only me talk 'cause I am vex,
This is The People's Court.
Now, what you have here today?

Clerk:
Well your honour, we have defendants Senator Sankey Sing and Senator Change Mih Mind
Also here is Mr. Religious Belief but I think we shall deal with the senators today,
At a later date we will deal with Religious Belief.

Judge 1,000 Years:
Alright, alright.
Politician Sankey Sing and Politician Change Mih Mind,
You are brought here for tricking black people,
By promising them good living every five years
You have been selling out black people to foreigners.

Sankey Sing:
Your honour...

Judge 1,000 Years:
Hush up!
Ah not finish yet!
What you want to do, promise me too?
I see rich getting richer and the poor dying...

Change Mih Mind:
Your honour, fundamentally, if I might say something at this point in time...

Judge 1,000 Years:
Shut up!
This is The People's Court and I not allowing any politriking here!
If you disturb me again I will give you 1,000 years for contempt of court.
You are also charged for charging the people too much taxes
Because of your mismanagement
Spending money then taxing the people for it.
You keep borrowing money from the IMF and the World Bank in the people's name
Continuing the oppression of black people by the same colonial masters
Why you can't learn?
No so called Third World country have been able to break loose from these money hogs.
You have black people in a vicious cycle...

Change Mih Mind:
If it wasn't for me, black people in this country would still be worshipping the Statue of Liberty.

Sankey Sing:
Well tell me how come you change your mind now?..

Judge 1,000 Years:
Shut up!
What you trying to do? Confuse the court?
I am giving you both 1,000 years on the first account.
From 1938 until now you have been dividing black people
You promising the people dem right back into slavery
Now, the only thing you have been truthful about is your thing about, 'Out of many, one'.

Sankey Sing:
Your honour,
That was taken from my Uncle Sam...

Judge 1,000 Years:
Yes, 'cause is only one people ah clean the street
Is one people ah eat out ah garbage heap
One people ah cut sugar cane
One people in ah sun and rain
And one people ah toil
And is one people ah see ah collect the coil...
And speaking of Uncle Sam,
I shall also charge you for giving rise to crack and cocaine in this country
By killing off the ganja plant that used to help our foreign exchange deficit
I am giving you 1,000 years for the crimes of Anthony Girlie Girlie,
Godfather Don And Mr. Crack Stone...

Change Mih Mind:
But your honour...

Judge 1,000 Years:
Shut up!!
You should be hanged but I shall be lenient and give you both 1,000 years.
I have been noticing that in your airports, only outgoing passengers are caught with drugs but never a tourist,
Yet we don't grow cocaine here
But it keep getting more common and common...

Sankey Sing:
But the tourist business is very vital to our national development!

Judge 1,000 Years:
Vital? Vital to who?
With your all-exclusive hotels,
Tourists will soon think that Negril is a next island by itself.
You claim that the poor can't take no more but you not giving them anything.
I see more Benz than Lada
And I hear that a car that cost $20,000 in Miami, cost $800,000 here.
What you do with all those extra money at Customs?
You keep talking about tourist harassment,
What you call what them doing with Jamaicans in foreign?
Every day they talking about Jamaican posse...

Sankey Sing:
Your honour,
As you can plainly see, when I was in power things were going to get right,
I had all the white people with money on my side
All the brown people were starting to feel as if they were living in Miami.

Judge 1,000 Years:
But what about black people?

Sankey Sing:
Well, as I was just getting around to them I lost the elections, your honour.

Change Mih Mind:
That is no excuse, your honour.
Before him, black people were getting very self sufficient
Brown people were starting to acquire homes in Miami...

Sankey Sing:
That is because they were running away, your honour.

Change Mih Mind:
White people started to say, "I and I" and "irie".

Sankey Sing:
Your honour,
If it wasn't for him and his black ideology, we would reach much further!

Change Mih Mind:
Your honour,
Him never have poor people on him mind,
That is why we having so much trouble now.

Sankey Sing:
Your honour,
Is him change, not me...

Change Mih Mind:
Your honour,
Him have a party of gangs! Is him say so himself!

Judge 1,000 Years:
Shut up!
I see no difference between both of you.
You both following the same thing that has, and is still keeping down black people.

Change Mih Mind:
When you not in power, your honour, it is easy to say this and that.
But when you have power, it is very different,
A different sankey you have to sing.

Judge 1,000 Years:
I am giving you both another 1,000 years.
None of you have the solutions to black people problem.
I suggest you read the philosophy and opinions of Marcus Garvey.
Study him carefully, then I might just grant you a pardon...
And another thing, before onnu begin onnu sentence,
Both of you should visit arcade
And see how poor women run business from nothing.
Let the domestic helpers show you how to use $130. to feed a family of six for one week.
Now take them away!!



THE PEOPLE'S COURT: Part II
By Mutabaruka

Sung introduction:
"Whiter than snow, whiter than snow
Lord wash me and make me whiter than snow..."

Clerk:
All rise! Judge 1000 years presiding.
Your honour, we have here Mr. Religious Belief and his henchman, Mr. Denomination.
Mr. Religious Belief, Mr Religious Belief! Please take the stand.

Judge 1,000 Years:
I am noticing that there is a new prosecutor here?

New Prosecutor:
Yes, your honour. After the last trial the other prosecutor had to resign.

Clerk:
Your honour, I think both of the gentlemen should take the stand at the same time
Considering the magnitude of charges against them.

Judge 1,000 Years: 
Mr. Religious Belief and Mr. Denomination,
I see where you also have been promising black people
But you are even worse than the politicians.
You promise them good living after they die
Yes, you say their reward is in heaven
It would appear to me that both of you have been to heaven already and have gotten yours.
The charges are too numerous to mention here.
For over 500 years you have been wanted,
From ever since you sent your relative here.
Yes, I am talking about the same Christopher Come-buss-us...

Mr. Religious Belief:
Your honour, the name is Christopher Columbus...

Judge 1,000 Years:
Hush up! Columbus, Come-buss-us, it don't matter!
He did come trick us.
It was you who went to the Americas and Africa
With your doctrine of civilizing the savages.
You taught black people to pray with their eyes closed,
When they open them, you had their land and they had the Bible.
With the Bible and gun you robbed, raped, murdered our foreparents in the name of Jesus.
You have divided black people into groups causing them to distrust each other
The first charge is for misleading black people into their color blind blindness.
You have black people worshiping everything white as good -
White Jesus, white winged angels, white Christmas...
Even the songs talk about, "Whiter than snow, I long to be."

Mr. Religious Belief:
The Bible did say, "Though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow."

Judge 1,000 Years:
So you trying to tell me that if my sins are white instead of scarlet,
God will accept my sins?
And by the way, Michael Angelo painting of his uncle...
For years black people keep revering this picture as the true picture of Christ.
All your religious holidays originate in Europe,
Everything in Heaven is white, everything in Hell is black
Is a lucky thing Jamaicans start to visit Hell
and really see for themselves.

Mr. Religious Belief:
Your honour, if I may be allowed to speak. Our divine and beloved father, Pope....

Judge 1,000 Years:
Shut up! Dope... or Pope, I will not allow you to ask any questions here.
I have never heard any one asking you any questions in one of your church services
You are also charged for collecting money under false pretense
You keep saying the church have no money
Yet every little open land have a tent for a few months then a massive building later
Did not your Bible say that your body is the temple of God?

Clerk:
Your honour, Mr. Denomination has been collecting money from people,
Saying that he can get them into Miami via the Bahamas
Through the guise of Christian crusades.
Through such a scheme, people have been jailed, Sir, trying to reach Miami.

Judge 1,000 Years:
What? I thought you would be trying to get them to heaven via your church.
You are also charged for misinterpretation
You have twisted the Bible to suit white supremacy
You have taken stories and quotes from other books much older than the Bible
And made them into myths.
Have you ever read the Egyptian Book of the Dead?

Mr. Denomination:
The what?

Judge 1,000 Years:
It is because of you why the DJ's have no respect for our black women
You have painted a picture of women as the originator of sin
You have made women look inferior in all your religious books
You have been preaching a sexist doctrine to our people
From Eve till now you have blamed women for the downfall of the world
You blame Delilah for Samson's stupidity
You have even placed sin on sex saying that Mary was a virgin all her life
With these images, what do you expect from our people?
You even have the earth as only 6,000 years old.
Maybe the history of Europe is only 6,000 years,
But black people have been here long before... long, long before.

Mr. Denomination:
Your honour...

Judge 1,000 Years:
Hush up! Didn't I tell you not to interrupt?
You shall get an extra 1,000 years for contempt of court!

Clerk:
Your honour, there is a certain denomination that have been given legal status here
That said denomination has been preaching for years that black people cannot enter heaven
Yet their recruiters travel around on bicycles two by two, trying to win souls.

Judge 1,000 Years: 
I have heard of this.
I hear they call themselves Church of the Latter Day Saints of Jesus Christ or Morons

Mr. Denomination:
The word is Mormons, your honour.
You have to understand that things change....

Judge 1,000 Years:
Hush up! Understand?
Black people have been under the stand for centuries.
These Morons or Mormons as you call them should never be allowed into a country
That is predominantly black to preach about God.
You have been collaborating with the politicians to trick black people.
You have branded voodoo and obeah and all African oriented traditions as paganism
Yet you have the people going to church,
Trying to drink the blood of Jesus and eat his flesh.
And I did hear you teaching them to pray and I quote,
"Lead us not into temptation..."
It is you they should be asking to lead them not into temptation.
When since the Lord lead people into temptation
That you should be asking him not to do it?

Mr. Denomination:
That was a slight misinterpretation.

Judge 1,000 Years:
Remember the Baker?
Remember the one who was Swagging hearts;
Remember the one who was using his mouth to Orally-rob-earth
All of these was collecting souls under false pretense
Mr. Religious Belief and Mr. Denomination,
I hereby sentence you both to 1,000 years for swindling poor people by way of radio and TV
I also give you 1,000 years for each year that black people
Have been suffering since Columbus came here.
Now, take them away!!

Source: The lyrics posted on this blog are often transcribed directly from performances. Although it is my intention to faithfully transcribe I do not get all the words and I have a knack for hearing the wrong thing. Please feel free to correct me or to fill in the words that I miss by dropping me a message via e-mail. I'd be forever grateful. Thanks in advance!
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"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare