Bayeza abafana bancane wema
Bayeza abafana bancane wema
Baphethe iqwasha, baphethe ibazooka
Bathi sangena savuma thina,
Lapha abazange bengena abazali bethu
Nabadala, bayasikhalela thina ngoba asina voti.

(the young boys are coming,
The young boys are coming.
They carry homemade weapons and a bazooka.
They say we have agreed to enter a place
That has never been entered before
By our parents or our ancestors
And they cry for us, for we do not have the right to vote.)

Hayiyaah!

The west is sleeping in a fragile freedom
Forgotten is the price that was paid
Ten thousand years of marching through a veil of tears
To break a few links in these chains
These things come to us by way of much pain
Don’t let us slip back into the dark
On a visible but distant shore -- a new image of man
The shape of his own future, now in his own hands -- he says:

Chorus:
One ’man, one vote -- step into the future
One ’man, one vote -- in a unitary state
One ’man, one vote -- tell them when you see them
One ’man, one vote -- it’s the only way

Bayeza abafana abancane
(the young boys are coming)

Hayiyaah!

In the east a giant is awakening
And in the south we feel the rising tide
The soul inside the spark that gives breath to your life
Can no longer be made to hide
These things come to us by way of much pain
Don’t let us slip back into the dark
On a visible but distant shore -- a new image of man
The shape of his own future, now in his own hands -- he says:

Chorus