Chords for Erykah Badu Discovers Her African Ancestry

_ _ Peace and love.
My name is Erica Badu, also known as Badula Oblengata, also known as Sarah Bellum, Manuela Maria Mexico,
Annie the Alchemist, She Ill, Fat Belly Bella, Analog Girl and the Digital World, [D] OK Player, [B] and you're watching OK Out. _ _ _
[A] _ [D] _ [C] Today I am
[B] using this very [E] clean Q [A]-tip with no one else's DNA [E] to swab my jaw to [C#m] find out where [B] my
roots are.
I've often [C#m] thought about and wondered where my [N] family's from.
I've had several readings [B] from shamans and
[C#m] _ different priests in Africa, different [Bm] places.
[A] My mother is fourth generation Dallas.
[G] I'm fifth generation Dallas, Texas.
_ [G#] My grandmother and [D] her sister's brothers also grew up there.
Her mother and her mother was from Oklahoma, _
[G] half Native American.
[A] _ _ [A] _ _ [F#] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ My mother's family is from the West Indies.
We have a surprise here for you today.
[G] It's going to be amazing.
You're going to be so surprised to see what was [F#] discovered about you.
The Bamilke area, which is also the grassland area of Cameroon, is a vast land.
[A] The lineage of your mother came from that area. _
_ [G#] _ I [N] found out that I am from
a wonderful tribe in Africa, Bamilke people living in Cameroon,
which means the grassy, the grass-filled people.
[D] One of the [G] remarkable things about [F#m] our culture, a child is a child to all mothers [B] back home.
And if you ever
happen to run into any mother back home, that mom is going to treat you the same [Am] way
like she would treat [F#m] her own biological [D#] daughter.
They have one
motif, and that is that [G#m] it takes a village to raise a child.
That's just an African tradition,
[D#] African-American period.
That's just some of the things that _
[F#] we practiced [D#] in our native [E] land we brought with us, and they just [C#] passed down from generation to generation.
_ [G] _
Welcome.
[A] Thank you.
Very, very happy to have this crowd here.
What is your name?
Simon.
[A#] Simon.
Bijingsi.
That sounds Russian, but it's Cameroon. _ _
[Em] _ _ _ And also I learned that my tribe's [Bm] people have a problem with being on time.
Everybody be quiet one [G#m] minute.
During [Bm] the colonial days,
the British were very good at timekeeping.
I worked with them during the colonial days, the British, where I'm from the English-speaking part of [F#] Cameroon.
[Bm] Eight o'clock was eight o'clock.
_ Five minutes late, you're in trouble.
[F#] What about
_ grassy [Bm] field people?
The grassy field people, about time?
Yes.
No, I said they have poor time.
You say eight o'clock, you see people come out at nine, ten.
_ This is wonderful.
This is help from Africa, _ telling y'all to leave me the hell alone.
_ _ About time.
The man just said time is for white people.
I've said it in several interviews.
Thank [B] you. _
_ _ _ [E] _ [Em] I see you when I see you.
[A] _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Dm] _ _ _ [G#] I started working on my new album, and I knew I was going to record it in Africa.
And I remembered around the same time that I was getting my results back, too.
So it all kind of worked together.
Now, definitely I have to go to Cameroon,
find some good [C#] drummers.
_ _ All along the way, [Dm] the ancestors led me to set [B] up all these things so that it would work out because
[D#] I think that there's an important thing [B] I'm supposed to [D] do next. _
[F#] _ _ _ [B] _ _ _ [D] Traditional dance or the juju performance is not [F#] really about style and technique at all.
The dance [E] of Africa is about the feeling and [C#] evoking the energies and spirits of
[D] the ancestors that love and protect us and want to see us do well.
I want to _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ thank _ God _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [A#] _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ for bringing [A] us all here this evening.
[E] And he said that we all have [A] one culture and that [G] God has a purpose.
God should continue to bless us and he should take [E] everybody [A] back home.
So, just to summarize [B] it.
Being able to single [C#] out
exactly
[G#] _ where I walked, [C#m] where my ancestors walked, what we smelled,
[B] _ _
what we heard, or
[C#m] _ what [E] attracts us, the colors in the fabrics.
These are the things that I vibrate [C#m] toward naturally.
[F#] You know, the [E] frequencies [B] of these things.
_ [E] There's one call I do on stage. _
[Bm] [B] This happens to be also the call of [F#m] the [B] tribe as well.
_ _ _ So some things are just in us.
I have to realize I do so much alone in my [G#m] career.
Like the Grammys, I'm getting [E] ready.
A song, I'm getting ready.
But this is [B] like something that
_ encompasses my whole family.
Like everyone on my mom's side.
So I'm gonna go back home with this new list to them. _
It's just gonna be amazing.
It's different.
Like my path is now different. _
I never really was so concerned about where I was from, you know, physically.
[C#m] It really didn't register [D] as something I needed to [E] do.
Because [G#m] I'm satisfied with, you know, knowing,
_ just the knowing that I'm a [B] part of it all.
Everything _ [F#] is matter.
_ _ _ [G#m] _
[N] Didn't understand why that really quite mattered
[F] until I went to the home [A#m] of [A#] _ _ _ St.
Petersburg.
[B] _ _
_ _ It's just another piece to help me become a better [C#] Erica in America.
_ _ _ [E] _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ [G#] Peace and [D#] light.
My name is Erica [F#] Badu, aka Mead [G#m] Bamaleke, _
[A#] _ aka
Sarah Bellum, [F#m] aka
[F] Analog Girl in the Digital World, OK Player.
And you're [D#] watching OK Africa.
[G#] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [D#] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[A#] _ _ _ [C#] _ _ [F] _ _ _
[G#m] _ _ _ [G#] _ _ _ _ _