Thursday, May 6, 2010

Early Morning Inspirations

I can’t sleep, woke up at 5 am and my brain won’t shut off. Perhaps it’s the finals I have to finish today or perhaps it’s my grand plan or something else. Whatever, I’m up and I can’t really turn on all the lights to work because everyone is still sleeping. Besides if I turn on the lights the three dogs will wake up and get all excited thinking its food time (two of them are here in the same room with me, sleeping on the couch and no they shouldn’t be). So I’m sitting in the glow of my lap top, listening to music, reading twitters from foreign countries (India is 24 hours ahead of us) and surfing the web.


A song came on and I started to think about why I put it on my MP3. I’m not a big rap fan, well not a rap fan in a small way either. This song though appeals to my soul. I think about the words and what they mean. The song makes me think about what it must be to live in war torn countries. I wonder what it must feel like to be a refuge and separated from your family.

There is a line in the song that refers to “Buffalo Soldiers”, here is what it means:

The Beginning

African Americans have served proudly in every great American war. In 1866, through an act of Congress, legislation was adopted to create six all African American Army units. The units were identified as the 9th and 10th cavalry and the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st infantry regiments. The four infantry regiments were later reorganized to form the 24th and 25th infantry regiments.

These fighting men represented the first Black professional soldiers in a peacetime army. The recruits came from varied backgrounds including former slaves and veterans from service in the Civil War.

The Nickname

The nickname buffalo soldiers began with the Cheyenne warriors in 1867. The actual Cheyenne translation was Wild Buffalo. The nickname was given out of respect and the fierce fighting ability of the 10th cavalry. Overtime, Buffalo Soldiers became a generic term for all African American soldiers.

So not sure why this song won’t leave my life, I only heard it one time on the radio about a year ago and it keeps coming back. I have two videos of the same song, one is a represntation of the somg and the other is about the FIFA World Cup which is in Africa 2010, they choose this song as the official theme.



3 comments:

  1. great song...thanks for the back ground...living as a refuge...i felt it being away from my fam for 8 months but at least i had an end...

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  2. Very cool song :0)

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  3. I love that song! I studied the Buffalo Soldiers in my African-American History class. I loved that class!

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