My video tribute to Fela's song, Authority Stealing (U be Thief).
----------- ADDITION - MAY 2, 2008: The following is a translation of a significant portion of the song, in response to requests I have received. It's too long a song for me to translate entirely, so I hope the two verses provided will be helpful. PLease note that this is my translation, and t
he choice of words may not necessarily be the most accurate, but they do convey the meaning of the song very well, almost line by line. CHORUS - [Accuser]: "You're a Thief" [Defendant]: "I'm not a thief" [Accuser]: "You're a rogue" [Defendant]: "I'm not a rogue" [Accuser]: "You're known for stea
ling" [Defendant]: "I do not steal" [Accuser]: "You're a robber" [Defendant]: "I'm not a robber" [Defendant]: "You're rather the Thief" [Accuser]: "I'm not a thief" [Defendant]: "You're a rogue" [Accuser]: "I'm not a rogue" . . . VERSE ONE - Arguments about stealing Someone has taken something
that belongs to another On a typical morning, we see workers brisking Office workers, labourers, and all variety of workers Some on buses, others on their motorcycles On any day, among such crowds, you can hear "Catch him, catch him" "Thief, thief, thief" Then the chasing starts by passersby They'l
l grab the alleged thief and beat him They'll sometimes lynch him Or the Police may show up and pick him up He may not get to defend himself in court The alleged may be jailed for one year two years, five years, seven years . . . Or they'll just shoot him for armed robbery The accused are often poo
r and desperate, and theft has become their way of hustling, trying to make ends meet VERSE TWO - Now let's turn our attention to the right wing That's where the Oga people are - "authority people" Unlike workers, authority people are called "officials" Unlike workers, officials ride with moto
rcades Unlike workers, officials fly in helicopters And instead of walking, workers walk for them However, these authority people do steal too When the public contributes lots of money authority people steal it Authority people do not pick pockets Oh no, that's just petty cash Authority people stea
l big While the armed robber needs gun to rob, the authority man needs a pen to rob He's in charge of the money His pen is mighter than the gun If the gun steals 80,000 Naira the pen will steal 2,000,000,000 Naira But when that happens, you won't hear anyone shouting "thief, thief, thief" ~

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