Chocolate and Mali

The children of Mali
Are struggling to be
Part of gods country
Of humanity
Fear and trepidation
They hold in their heart
For traffickings rife
Cart after cart

And sent over the border
Where the chocolate is grown
For the giants the heartless
Where nightmares full blown
Are very apparent
Spasm and shock
Repression and coarseness
And callousness knock

Where insensitive corporates
Peddle their wares
Mali’s dear children
Of course say their prayers
But god is not hearing
Nor feeling their pain
And Far too much suffering
Again and again

For some 30 dollars
A child is sold
Into heartache and anguish
Into wretchedness rolled
Alone in the world
Made to work as a slave
Beaten and whipped
And put into a grave

So much despondency
Fretting and strain
Just little children
For them life in vain
Struggling manfully
Under the sun
In dangerous conditions
Devoid of all fun

Its gruelling its grindingly hot
And its wrong
Depressing and dismal
It is all along
some 15,000 young children
Now be
In the midst of the violence
The Cacao Industry

Blubbering whimpering
Very moist eyes
Away from their parents
Under the skies
Facing the wrath of
The corporate whip
Forbidding and frightful
Under the grip

Of the great chocolate families
Whose artlessness stinks
They tell many lies
Nobody thinks
Brand names could do this
Such vulgarity
And intimidation
And awe seemingly

Despite all their promises
And all their lies
The children are having to work
To be wise
They are treated slavishly
The hostility
So much ill feeling
Its no place to be
But they have to be there
Forced every day
With a grip of iron
And of course without pay

Unloved and unwelcome
Nobody cares
Just evil intention
Nobody dares
To speak out of place
For the whip tears the skin
And an ugly face
And a stint in the bin

They never show mercy
As ruthless as hell
They make loads of money
The chocolate they sell
At fancy prices across the sea
And we must be thankful
Really to be
Alive with a job
No matter how hard
How our body’s acHe
And the whip has scarred

so much immorality
And wickedness here
Stolen and trafficked
Oh! its very clear
They have the upper hand
We are the ones
Nobody loves us
Someone else’s sons

Such degradation
Such flagrancy
Their wicked ways
The West fails to see
Rewarded for treachery
And for this crime
Us children are suffering
All of the time

We are abandoned
Lost to the world
The Wests incompetence
Here we are hurled
Unlawful places
Without a name
On the wrong side of the law
And always to blame

The chocolate children
Condemned evermore
Lost in the jungle
Whatever for
Being thrashed being kicked
Being beaten and caned
And left in shackles
And even chained

Many have died
Many fall sick
So many bruises
Hit with a stick
No parents to cry to
No one at all
When you are a slave
That is the rule