Faded Footprints

Now we come up from the islands,
so let us all rejoice!
Farewell to old Jamaica
this new land be our choice.

We lived long in the mountains.
We slept in hollow caves.
A proud defiant people
refusin’ to be slaves.

When last they came to reason
was best to set us free,
we chose for us a new land
beside Atlantic’s sea.

Farewell you island mountains.
Farewell we’re on our way
to sea-side Nova Scotia,
forever there to stay.

Your Duke of Kent received us.
We built for him a fort.
But some rebuked our presence
and urged that we de-port.

Farewell to forts and cannons.
Farewell we’re on our way
to country life in Preston,
forever there to stay.

We tilled the soil and laboured,
intent to make our way
through winter’s chill and hunger,
‘til last we dared not stay.

So farewell Nova Scotia,
your Black salt-water tunes.
Keep ever in your memory
the proud and free Maroons.

And let time not forget us,
our footprints in your soil,
our craft within your fortress,
the products of our toil.

Farewell to barren scrub land.
Farewell we’re on our way
to land of Black skin people,
forever there to stay.

So come we now to Freetown.
These roots of closer kin,
where “once were” Nova Scotians,
knew well where we had been.

And we shall not forget you,
ye Nova Scotian sons,
for we are all but family,
our Blackness is as one.

Farewell Jamaican mountains.
Farewell to Scotian spray.
We’ll pass our lives in Freetown.
Forever shall we stay.

The proud Maroons – from 1976 to 1800