Free Alaa
Wednesday, May 10th, 2006 at 10:23 AM
One cherished memory from my youth was sitting with my cousins singing an old African-American spiritual, ” When Israel was in Egypt’s land” which retells the events in the Old Testament of the Bible (Exodus, chapters 3-12), in which God commands Moses to demand the release of the Israelites being held in Egypt. The song was made famous by Paul Robeson whose voice, deep and resonant as it was, conveyed the authority of the voice of God before Moses in Egypt.
This is how the song goes:
When Israel was in Egypt’s land
Let my people go
Oppressed so hard they could not stand
Let my people goGo down, Moses, way down in Egypt’s land
Tell old Pharaoh, Let my people goSo Moses went to Egypt’s land
Let my people go
To make old Pharaoh understand
Let my people go
Thus spake the Lord, bold Moses said,
“Let my people go,
If not, I’ll strike your first born dead
Let my people go”
Perhaps someone could re write the song for the 21st century. I’m thinking something along the lines of:
When bloggers were in Egypt’s prisons
Let our people go
Oppressed so hard they could not stand
Let our people goStand up bloggers; stand up for Egypt’s scribes
Tell old Pharaoh, Let our people goA Google bomb dropped on Egypt’s land
Let our people go
To make old Pharaoh understand
Let our people go
Thus spake the bloggers, bold google said,
“Let our people go,
If not, we’ll strike your google ranking
Let our people go”
Something like that, yeah I know the lyrics are not that good, in my defence however, it is early on a Tuesday morning. For some proper lyrics you should head over to mshairi’s.
technorati tag: googlebombingforalaa
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Entry Filed under: Africa, Human Rights, Politics
6 Comments Add your own
1. Mary (Demoblogger) | May 10th, 2006 at 11:32 am
Great post! I am cross-posting it on the Free Alaa! blog.
2. Mentalacrobatics | May 11th, 2006 at 10:40 am
Thank you for visiting Mary.
3. Mama JunkYard’s &ra&hellip | May 13th, 2006 at 12:34 am
[...] Inspired by Mshairi’s poetry and MentalAcrobatics’ lyric swapping skills and with apologies to Grace Nichols for altering the text of her poem Of Course When They Ask for Poems About the ‘Realities’ of Black Women, I join fellow bloggers in the google-bombing for Alaa campaign. [...]
4. Silent Running » Bl&hellip | May 14th, 2006 at 3:13 am
[...] Egyptian Blogger Alaa Abdel Fatah has been arrested, and there are currently ten other bloggers in prison in the country. Campaigns to help him and the other bloggers have been launched, including one which has a form you can fill in that will send a letter of protest to the right people. Sandmonkey has the details. Mental Acrobatics suggest a reworking of “When Israel Was in Egypt’s Land” which sends me off on a Paul Robeson tangent for some reason. [...]
5. Mentalacrobatics » &hellip | June 23rd, 2006 at 2:58 am
[...] Elijah Zarwan writing on Global Voices informs us that the Award-winning Egyptian blogger and activist Alaa Seif al-Islam Abd al-Fattah whose arrest by the Egyptian forces I blogged about over a month ago, has been freed. Ethan informs that there are indications that the 26 remaining Kefaya prisoners may also be released soon. Alaa’s wife, Manal, thinks he will be back home by late Thursday at the latest. Excellent news indeed or as they are saying on some Egyptian blogs, MABROUK YA SHABAB! MABROUK YA TENNIN YA BAMBY! (Congratulations, guys! Congratulations, you pink dragon!) [...]
6. Mentalacrobatics » &hellip | September 14th, 2006 at 7:11 pm
[...] The best thing for me today however is the social interaction. It is good to me so many bloggers from across Africa, exchange details and discuss our various experiences. For example apart from Timbuktu Chronicles I also met Alaa who’s imprisonment earlier this year led to a google-bomb campaign which the Kenyan blogosphere responded to with enthusiasm. We talked blogs and politics for about 10 seconds and before you could say “integrated web solutions” we were discussing various Open Sources CMS and the pros and cons of each one. It is also good to meet Ethan as well as the DCI organisers. People who existed only on blogs and email up to today. There are a reasonable number of Kenyans here, mostly journalists who have all expressed interest in blogging and joining KBW like their colleague John Kamau who has been a member for a while. I’ve bonded with, Rebecca who has been blogging for a while. [...]
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