Ouvri bayi, Ouvri bayi, Ouvri bayi to my ancestry.
Unblock the past, release the remnants of my origin--ality.

200 years of shacklery can't erase 8000 years of history
written in stone, carved into trees, fossilized in clay.
Ouvri bayi, Ouvri bayi, Ouvri bayi to my ancestry.
Unblock the past, release the remnants of my origin--ality

Tales sculpted on palisades, tablets, and pallets,
traditional masks, wooden images, and adinkra print.  Let go.
Ouvri bayi, Ouvri bayi, Ouvri bayi to my ancestry.
Unblock the past, release the remnants of my origin--ality.

Give us our slavehold, oar beaten scratch-holes.
40 acres and a mule leave us 7800 years to untrack.
Ouvri bayi, Ouvri bayi, Ouvri bayi to my ancestry.
Unblock the past, release the remnants of my origin--ality.

Legba entreats from his gate glimpses of looted treasures,
tales of queenly might, kingdoms lost and ignored.
Ouvri bayi, Ouvri bayi, Ouvri bayi to my ancestry.
Unblock the past, release the remnants of my origin--ality

Tell us our story, Ananse, Ogun, creators of wit.
Fill us with twists and angles, spin us like webs.
Ouvri bayi, Ouvri bayi, Ouvri bayi to my ancestry.
Unblock the past, release the remnants of my origin--ality.

Mend intricate webs so that we might slip
through the silken maze stuck to lost generations.
Ouvri bayi, Ouvri bayi, Ouvri bayi to my ancestry.
Unblock the past, release the remnants of my origin--ality

Damballa rouse Shango to blast the sky drive with
lightning glaring, glistening on iridescent black skin.
Ouvri bayi, Ouvri bayi, Ouvri bayi to my ancestry.
Unblock the past, release the remnants of my origin--ality.

Anti-priests approach veve blinded by symbols of verite
excreted through dung and droplets of liquified flesh.
Ouvri bayi, Ouvri bayi, Ouvri bayi to my ancestry.
Unblock the past, release the remnants of my origin--ality.

Olodumare, Holy Jah, Osiris, recharge the eye of the udiet
Stir power within our ancestry to finally set our origins free.
Ouvri bayi, Ouvri bayi, Ouvri bayi to my ancestry.
Unblock the past, release the remnants of my origin--ality.