WEBVTT

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[sil.]

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[music]

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My Africa is a rich continent

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but most Africans are not benefiting. Africa
is not poor, it has been impoverished.

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[music]

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Westerners have always
coveted our land and wealth.

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Ever since they first came
here, first with slavery

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and the triangular trade,
then through colonization

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they sold our resources and contrived the
political and cultural assimilation of Africa.

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Leaders like Kwame Nkrumah fought against

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imperialism and claimed
Africa for Africans.

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They dreamed up for United Africa that would determine
its own destiny. This was in the early \'50s.

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This decade is the decade

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of African independence. Favor done

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(inaudible) to independence,
to independence now,

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tomorrow, the united states of Africa.

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This idea had foreign powers worried
that they were losing their grip

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on the continent. In a divided
Africa, they orchestrated

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the systematic elimination
either politically or by force

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of every leader that wanted to break
away from them. The x-colonizers,

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who base them with an elite class subordinated
to their interests, Africans were trapped.

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I am an African,

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born in Senegal. During the \'80s, I
witnessed these new ruling classes

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total abandonment of their people.
Under the pretext of debt repayment,

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they made debts to public services,
education and health, backing short term

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new liberal interests. Instead of working
toward most sustainable development,

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this also happened to be the era when
hip-hop was taking over the word.

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Politicized groups like Public Enemy
inspired me to speak truth to power.

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In \'89, some friends and I started a
group called Positive Black Soul.

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The turning point in my political engagement
has noticed was a presidential election

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in Senegal in 2000. Though our
music, we urged young people

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to vote and it worked. Their record turnout brought
about the country\'s first change of government

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in the 40 years since independence.
Hip-hop had allowed us to mobilize

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the youth and empower them. Senegal\'s voters
had done their part and voted for change.

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But in the 10 years, since President
Abdoulaye Wade was elected,

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nothing has changed.

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[sil.]

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After those elections,

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my political convictions only became firmer.
I understood that the very foundations

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of our countries will roam
from our political system

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to the way that our economy functions.
None of it has anything to do with

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our founding fathers vision
of African independence.

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Right now, I\'m working on an
album called African presidents.

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An homage to those revolutionaries
who died for their ideal of a proud

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independent Africa. They are
for the most part unknown.

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Even if some of them were not presidents,
I want to elevate them to that rank.

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I sampled their great speeches
and used them in my songs.

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On each track, I associate a leader\'s
speech with the rappers voice.

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[music]

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[music]

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[sil.]

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[non-English narration]

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I\'m going to the archives
of our national television

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to see if I can find any speeches
of my African presidents.

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[non-English narration]

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[non-English narration]

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[sil.]

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Our national television was created
10 years after independence.

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Until then, the only images we had of
ourselves had been shipped by outsiders.

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[music]

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I have to go abroad to find
traces of our history.

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[music]

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Lumumba was the first
African head of government

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to be killed because of his
nationalist positions.

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He opposed Belgium\'s re-colonization plans. He
was just elected prime minister of the Congo,

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the richest territory on the
continent in natural resources.

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He claimed that Congo and its raw
materials for the Congolese.

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Belgium, the US, and their local allies

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wanted to suppress those political
ideals before they spread elsewhere.

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They assassinated Lumumba, he
was shot, buried, then dug up,

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dismembered, and dissolved in acid.

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Since then, the pillaging has continued leading
to the death of more than four million Congolese.

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[music]

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[sil.]

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Burkina Faso is the former French colony.

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Today, it is one of the
world\'s poorest countries.

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Things started to change in 1984,
when the young Captain Thomas Sankara

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and his comrades took power in (inaudible). His
mission was to raise the people out of poverty.

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Sankara renamed the country \"Burkina Faso,

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the land of upright man.\" In four years,

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he achieved food self-sufficiency,
fought against corruption,

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conducted unprecedented vaccination campaigns
and included women in the government and army.

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He cut the privileges of civil
servants setting himself

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as an example of self-sacrifice.
Like with Lumumba,

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the ideas of this young
charismatic leader were a danger

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to those who benefited from a weakened
disunited Africa. He was betrayed

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and assassinated with the complicity of the West by his
brothers in the arms. He was replaced by one of them.

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Blaise Compaoré, who still
runs the country to this day,

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back to square one. Burkina Faso now
find itself in the same position

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of dependant that it was in before
the revolution but Sankara proved

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that even the poorest country in the word could
get by on its own without any international aid.

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[sil.]

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[music]

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Smokey is a friend. He\'s
Burkina\'s most outspoken artist

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in a context where some have been killed for
daring to criticize the powers that be.

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He\'ll be doing the track
about Sankara with me.

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[music]

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You can\'t heed the roots of a tree,

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and not heed the tree. You can\'t hit your (inaudible)
and not end up heeding yourself. You can heed African

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and not heed yourself.

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I\'m in the United States to record
a track that embodies the ideas

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of Malcolm X. This leader was
assassinated just when he was starting

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to bring together African and
African-American struggles collaboration.

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He saw them as one single battle.
I thought of m-1

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from the militant group dead prez
as a guest artist. Of course, yeah.

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For me this album is really important
because I\'ve been to several country like

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30, 30-40 countries all around Africa.
Meet people

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like the (inaudible) camp,
you know, do (inaudible).

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Uh… Filing great speeches of great man\'s.
I went everywhere, everywhere.

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And uh… I learned a lot. So it\'s important

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that I give all I took
from my… I have to give.

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What\'s the name of your album?
African President.

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They did their part, we
have to do our part. Right.

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They… they… they… they had some questions, you
have to answer and to uh… put some new questions.

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And the new generations have to do. They
will have to do their job but let\'s do ours.

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That\'s right. That\'s right. That\'s right.
Yeah. For me what is important

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is that we go further than the music.
Yeah. Yeah.

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And the message reach further than uh… the… only
the music. Yeah, yeah. It makes me feel happy

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to be in a room then, (inaudible)
but I give it, I give it up so…

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You have done imagine the… the
place you have in conscious music.

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Well, I don\'t wanna do picture or…
I just… with conscious people.

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I know it will give me credibility and I
need this credibility coming from, you know,

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real people like you. So this time,
how long you\'re gonna be in here.

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Uh… I\'m… I\'m going back to Senegal on to
22nd. That\'s 22nd. Okay, okay, cool… cool.

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Are you gonna be in New York?
New York, but I wanna be

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for inauguration of Barack Obama.
You wanna go there too? Yeah.

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Yeah. I\'m not gonna go there. But I\'m… I\'m
gonna go back to Houston on Monday after this.

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Okay. (inaudible). Yeah, I\'ll see it. I\'ll see it,
I\'ll see it from… I\'ll see it from… from these eyes

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and this point of view. I\'ll explain later but
yeah, definitely yeah. You have some doubt?

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Umm… No, not even doubt, I\'m at reality. I know
what was real. And uh… we name… we… we need more,

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we need more than what umm… the US government can give, no
matter what, no matter who\'s in charge, he has to come.

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But like I said, it\'s… it\'s that

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what we can do album just about that alone.
(inaudible).

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No, no. Not for me, for me it\'s not

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uh… really Barack but the
symbol of, you know… Yeah.

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…what can the… The thing he can offer is the symbolic, you know, of a son of an African
who, who\'s making it. Yeah. So for me all the African, they must take it as a lesson.

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Okay, you can do it. That\'s it. Okay.
And I muted everything except this.

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Anyway we can get some strength to get it. If
that we don\'t get it from Barack Obama then get.

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But I know many instances of
strength and I wanna point them out

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and it\'s my job especially through the music and
my culture to point it out every time I see.

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So, you know, if we use Barack today, good because
I have somebody else when… when he fuck up,

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you know what I mean. Yes, sir.

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I say black in the back, browns to go round, like in the
right. And… and that was an old thing that was called

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the paper bag (inaudible). If you\'re black, get in the
back. If you\'re brown, take a round. If you like,

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you\'re in the right. You know what I mean? At this, this is
like, oh, oh, shit that was real, that\'s real in the US.

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You know what I mean? And this created the
reason why people think light this better

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because you know, you know. So I say black in the
back, browns to go round, light in the right.

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The black the berry, the sweeter
the juice, the bigger the tree,

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the deeper the roots. I say black the berry, the sweeter the juice, the bigger the tree, the
deeper the roots. You get me. And then I say, and then the rest is like kind of sing song.

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No, I\'m okay, I\'m okay. Thank you.
I\'m already,

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I\'m born high. I said,

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they try to make us hate each other, they try to… they
try to make us hate each other and in spite of that.

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Uh… He tried to write a sort of history and
hard facts on top of that they tried to make us

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feel inferior. (inaudible) that\'s
my brother asking in the mirror.

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And that\'s the end of (inaudible) it comes, it\'s like a
singing, it sings because at the end you gotta break,

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like you\'re break sing… sing a little bit, yo… yo… yo… yo… yo… So
you\'ll see how you got it. Yeah, but that… those are the lyrics.

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So it\'s cool, it\'s cool, it\'s cool? Of
course, it\'s cool. cool. All right.

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[music]

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I ain\'t a black man, I\'m a African,

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you can\'t separate my skin from
my land, and if you (inaudible),

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I\'m not brand understand I\'m a human being,

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that\'s like a logical damage we
got to over come. (inaudible),

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black in the back, browns to
go round, light in the right.

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The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice, the bigger the tree, the
deeper the roots. They try to make us hate each other but in spite of that,

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they tried to write a sort of history and hard facts
on top of that they tried to make us feel inferior.

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Yo, that\'s my brother looking
at me in the mirror yo.

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[sil.]

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Malcolm X is a good choice, buddy.

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Obama will (inaudible). Yeah, I don\'t think you could\'ve
picked the better one. I reject hip-hop all the time.

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Hip-hop to me has limitations. When
you say hip-hop, you think America.

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And I\'m not an American, I\'m an
African, who is influenced by America,

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who was oppressed by America. However,
I don\'t represent American culture

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but hip-hop does. No matter where
you go, you can\'t escape that.

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Hip-hop represents American
culture, brought to you by MTV,

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sponsored by Barack Obama. And
so umm… I have to escape that.

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Hip-hop has been corporatized,
this umm… it is hip-hop is

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a puppet. Hip-hop is part
of the media, of US media

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which is uh… you know, the
right hand propaganda arm unit

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for the American government. I don\'t even blame
the rappers because we are being programmed for,

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to… to think these ideas. I have even met
rappers who have two separate agendas.

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They meet me, they say, \"I got, look I\'ve
got a rap. You know, what I\'m saying,

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I take down the government… revolutionary and I\'m
loving it. And then they turn around say me,

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we should not say that stuff though,
you know. I got, I got this book.

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(inaudible) Cadillac, keep the sack roll up with a
girl in the back and they say that rap to the world.

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And they keep that other book closed.
They know it\'s there

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but they keep the book closed \'cause
they have a whole other agenda.

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Uh… American hip-hop grooves you for the other agenda. They
say, we don\'t even come in the door. If you\'ve got them raps,

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close that book, I feel you, you… you are that guy. But they…
the… the… that allows for that social commentaries in there.

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[sil.]

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Are you prepared to take the oath, Senator?

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I am. I Barack Hussein Obama do solemnly swear that I\'ll execute,
preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States.

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So help you God. So help me God.
Congratulations, Mr. President. Thank you.

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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We know that the battle ahead will be long

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but always remember that no matter
what obstacle stand in our way,

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nothing can stand in the way of the power
of millions of voices calling for change.

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[music]

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Yes, we can.

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Yes, we can.

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I have a dream.

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Yes, we can. Yes, we can.

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[music]

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[sil.]

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Obama created a lot of hope but
for Africans he\'s only a symbol.

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I don\'t want my Presidents,

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my heroes to be reduced to symbols
of the past, their ideals live on.

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They provide the key to understanding
in today\'s geopolitical

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imbalance even as emerging nations like China
are creating new models of exploitation.

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[sil.]

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I know that for Africa to
become truly independent

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neither symbols, nor my
music will be enough.

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My songs are called to action but
we need real political cloud,

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we need to get organized, we
need to go beyond hip-hop.

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[sil.]

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The winner is Smockey.

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[music]

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[sil.]

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Sankara was killed because his brothers
did not support him just like Malcolm X,

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(inaudible), Lumumba and other
leaders in this movement.

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It is fear of suffering the same
fate that paralyzes the citizens.

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[music]

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Smokey goes beyond his role as a North-East
by calling out young people on their fears,

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in a country where fear
is part of everyday life.

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He takes the lead and defies the
system no matter the consequences.

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Everybody needs to stand up like that.
If we want to bring about a real change.

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This is what happened in South Africa,
where in spite of their fears,

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South Africans stood united
against their oppressors.

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For a long time, the Apartheid Regime
wasw like the Berlin Wall for Africans.

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It\'s fall (inaudible) the pope
throughout the continent.

00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
In the fight against apartheid,

00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
organization was a key to victory following
the introduction of segregation (inaudible),

00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:14.999
the ANC, the African National Congress

00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:19.999
took the lead in mobilizing and called the
native into rebellion. Marches, boycotts

00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:24.999
and strikes eventually gave
way to military struggle.

00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.999
When the leader Nelson Mandela was in prison
for life, the movement only intensified.

00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.999
For 30 years,

00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:39.999
resistance groups planned and carried out the
political and intellectual education of the people.

00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
They clandestinely organized a
truly democratic political party.

00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.999
The entire population supported them.
So when Nelson Mandela was released

00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.999
after 27 years in prison, the
ANC was able to take charge

00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.999
of the country and manage the peaceful
transition that ended Apartheid.

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.999
The Rainbow Nation was
born, it was a greatest

00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:09.999
political enterprise of the 20th century.
But the enormous

00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:14.999
task of correcting flagrant, social
and economic inequalities remain.

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:23.000
[music]

00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.999
I\'m here to collaborate with Zuluboy,

00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.999
who\'s part of the new
generation of conscious artist.

00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:08.000
[music]

00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
That is last. You\'re the first man.
(inaudible).

00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.999
Yeah! Man, put the idea of the chorus,
please. Yeah, (inaudible) the chorus.

00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.999
And… the guitar to chorus?
You got something.

00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.999
(inaudible) in my way? Black killing black.
What\'s the… (inaudible) Where did they go?

00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:18.000
[non-English narration]

00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:29.999
You know, if… if you say it in Senegalese

00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:34.999
that why are we killing each other,

00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:39.999
you know, what I mean. There\'s
an intro, just there\'s an intro.

00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.999
You know, and uh… Who… would you like me to start it or
would you like to start it. I\'m your host, dude. You say.

00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:50.000
I\'d love for you to open
the platform. Okay.

00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:34.999
[music]

00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:39.999
Don\'t sit back, give us a hand

00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:44.999
starts with you making a friend sharing
intelligence like mad until this ignorance.

00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:49.999
And (inaudible) this life has always
ever had Africa, Iraq and Baghdad.

00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:54.999
What successes of a kid would have bad dad (inaudible), so why do we play
dead? Was it really written then read. So we had the pen to pull they pat,

00:51:55.000 --> 00:52:03.000
they must be mad. Thinking money is the root evil but it was said. Was it really me or my pencil wasting the
lead was it the word spread head to head (inaudible) when I prepared. So now you must listen to (inaudible)

00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:09.999
telling you to get back. And we don\'t want your check,
please help us unite \'cause we\'re under more than

00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:14.999
one self destruction attack.

00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:19.999
During the Apartheid Government where Jazz musician
were only be allowed to get in numbers, you know,

00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:24.999
and… and (inaudible) number. So I went to go study at that
place, it was a nice school. I was thinking, \"Hey, revolution,

00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:29.999
you know.\" So I\'m chilling there and the lecturer calls me
(inaudible) like, \"Hey, boy form Natal.\" You know, like,

00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:34.999
they don\'t call me by name \'cause there was a stereo
type here in Johannesburg as they, as in the world

00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:39.999
that if you\'re from KwaZulu-Natal you coming
from the bushes, you coming from the farm.

00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:44.999
You… you… you got a hard head, you uneducated,
you know, and you don\'t know anything,

00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:49.999
you know, and they were boys from Johannesburg.
As my lecturers they (inaudible) \"Hey, hey,

00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:54.999
Zuluboy was that.\" So that\'s where the
name came from, it was actually an insult,

00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:59.999
they were… they were insulting me with this name. And I, and I took
this insult after I finished studying the piano, I went back home

00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:04.999
with this insult and I… I… it\'s… it\'s trying to
put it back in their faces like, \"Bam, yeah,

00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:09.999
I am a Zuluboy, so what?\" Man,
I voting first of all. Why?

00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.999
Uh… Man, I\'m an artist man, I believe us as
artists, we are the people that are supposed

00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:19.999
to get back to the people and tell them,
\"Hey, your governments messing up.\"

00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:24.999
You know, so how would I be able to do
that if I\'m biased to a certain party?

00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:29.999
You know, I… I… I involve in myself in politics because
I think I\'m a politician in my own right as a lyricist

00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:34.999
than a person who creates and speaks to mass media and
decide on what I\'m gonna feed people\'s ears and minds.

00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:39.999
What\'s… what\'s the use of
having power with no authority?

00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:44.999
Think about it logically. I rather not have any power
if I ain\'t gonna have no authority to that power.

00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:49.999
You know, what I mean. And that\'s what these
G20 and G8 is doing. You know what I mean.

00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:54.999
And that\'s what these… these uh… big countries
(inaudible) towards African countries

00:53:55.000 --> 00:53:59.999
and the debt that Africa, what\'s it?
375 billion.

00:54:00.000 --> 00:54:04.999
And these billions that that Africa owes the
West banks and stuff like that I think, yo, man,

00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:09.999
I think that they should just govern and it\'s fine.
You\'ll be fine. I think it would be better that way.

00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:14.999
We\'d all be under one umbrella, we\'d
all be one country, it would be fine.

00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:19.999
I think that will work, you know what I mean. Instead
of us picking truth amongst life lies. It\'s bullshit.

00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:24.999
[sil.]

00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:29.999
Today, the ANC ideals have been sidelined.

00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:34.999
The dream of a fairer
society has been sacrificed

00:54:35.000 --> 00:54:39.999
for new liberal interests. This
is a drama of our continent.

00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:48.000
[sil.]

00:54:55.000 --> 00:55:03.000
[music]

00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:09.999
I invited them on to
Senegal to shoot the video

00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:14.999
for the track on Malcolm X
that we recorded in New York.

00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:19.999
I got another one already for you… don\'t
worry, I got another one for you.

00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:24.999
I love it, I love that you created.

00:55:25.000 --> 00:55:29.999
(inaudible), oh, man, I see it. Yeah, yeah.

00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:34.999
Black and white flags, it\'s
about to be great. Okay, yeah.

00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:39.999
You can heed the roots of a
tree and not heed the tree.

00:55:40.000 --> 00:55:44.999
You can heed your odds and
not end up heeding yourself.

00:55:45.000 --> 00:55:49.999
You can heed Africa and not heed yourself.

00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:54.999
You need some Judo, you need some karate

00:55:55.000 --> 00:55:59.999
you need all the things that will help
you fight for freedom. It is nationalism

00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:04.999
that\'s bringing freedom for… for press people
all over the world. It is… it was nationalism

00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:09.999
that brought freedom to the Algerian.
It was nationalism

00:56:10.000 --> 00:56:14.999
that brought freedom to the Nigerian. The Africans didn\'t
get it by sitting in, they didn\'t get it by waiting in,

00:56:15.000 --> 00:56:19.999
they didn\'t get it by singing we shall
overcome. They got it through nationalism.

00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:24.999
[music]

00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:29.999
I say that again that I\'m not a racist, I
don\'t believe in any form of segregation,

00:56:30.000 --> 00:56:34.999
and for brotherhood as everybody, but
I don\'t believe in enforcing uh…

00:56:35.000 --> 00:56:39.999
brotherhood upon (inaudible). As long as
we practice brotherhood among ourselves

00:56:40.000 --> 00:56:44.999
and then others who wanna practice brotherhood with us, you practice
it (inaudible). But I don\'t think that you should run around

00:56:45.000 --> 00:56:49.999
trying to love somebody who
doest love us. Thank you.

00:56:50.000 --> 00:56:54.999
[music]

00:56:55.000 --> 00:57:03.000
[sil.]

00:57:10.000 --> 00:57:14.999
Is this where we are going? Yeah, it\'s gorée island. And so this
is probably the olden place. Probably, it looks like (inaudible).

00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:19.999
Yeah. Man.

00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:24.999
Look at this, so long. That\'s what
I\'m saying, straight. How big it is.

00:57:25.000 --> 00:57:29.999
Huge. How many people said
(inaudible) 15 million? That\'s …

00:57:30.000 --> 00:57:34.999
that\'s a lot. That\'s a lot of people.

00:57:35.000 --> 00:57:39.999
That\'s a lot of people to transition
through here, all over. Yeah, (inaudible).

00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:44.999
Great.

00:57:45.000 --> 00:57:53.000
[sil.]

00:58:00.000 --> 00:58:04.999
How many times you\'ve been here? Oh, you know, I grew up in this area.
Right. But how many, how many, since you\'ve been… Well, you grew in Gorée?

00:58:05.000 --> 00:58:09.999
Yeah, I used to come here because my

00:58:10.000 --> 00:58:14.999
umm… my aunt she… she had a house
over there so I grew up here,

00:58:15.000 --> 00:58:19.999
you know, (inaudible). Uh…
Learned to swim here.

00:58:20.000 --> 00:58:24.999
Right.

00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:30.000
(inaudible).

00:58:55.000 --> 00:59:03.000
[non-English narration]

00:59:05.000 --> 00:59:09.999
How do you feel… No wonder this is one
of the places where people, you know.

00:59:10.000 --> 00:59:14.999
Right. I think of the wealth of
Africa and uh… today the power of…

00:59:15.000 --> 00:59:19.999
Even the music that we do, it belongs to us.
We have reclaimed, I reclaimed it in Brooklyn.

00:59:20.000 --> 00:59:24.999
And you… you reclaimed it here.
But imagine if it had never been,

00:59:25.000 --> 00:59:29.999
if it came from here to begin from
the beginning we own, you know.

00:59:30.000 --> 00:59:34.999
Yeah. And, you know, it… it… it and
sometimes it makes me a little angry,

00:59:35.000 --> 00:59:39.999
you know. Uh… Right now I feel I was a

00:59:40.000 --> 00:59:44.999
uh… I was asked how do I feel. And I, you know, I feel
a sense of entitlement, I feel entitled to be here.

00:59:45.000 --> 00:59:49.999
You know, umm… this is my home. A lot of people
say, \"Oh, no, you\'re an African-American.\"

00:59:50.000 --> 00:59:54.999
Umm… Well, I reject that
the American aspect of it

00:59:55.000 --> 00:59:59.999
because the American part of it is what the
part that that turned me from an African

01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:04.999
into a so-called slave but we, I was
never a slave I was always an African,

01:00:05.000 --> 01:00:09.999
I was, I mean, I was an enslaved African.
Uh… But people just say slave

01:00:10.000 --> 01:00:14.999
but I\'m never a slave, I don\'t have a slave mentality
but it was the American part that attached it.

01:00:15.000 --> 01:00:19.999
And so I feel like I reclaim it
when I come here, I… I reclaim

01:00:20.000 --> 01:00:24.999
what… what belongs to me and my people.
Wow! What\'s this one.

01:00:25.000 --> 01:00:33.000
[music]

01:00:35.000 --> 01:00:39.999
My connection with M-1 goes beyond hip-hop.

01:00:40.000 --> 01:00:44.999
May I know the place?

01:00:45.000 --> 01:00:49.999
Okay.

01:00:50.000 --> 01:00:54.999
When the slaves were shipped from Gorée Island to
America, all they had was their memories and their music.

01:00:55.000 --> 01:00:59.999
Their music became the blues, then
jazz before being transformed

01:01:00.000 --> 01:01:04.999
into hip-hop. When hip-hop
swept through Africa,

01:01:05.000 --> 01:01:09.999
it brought me to a new awareness. I felt
the tides that united me with Africans

01:01:10.000 --> 01:01:14.999
from over there. And I felt
more determined to fight

01:01:15.000 --> 01:01:19.999
for African freedom than ever before.

01:01:20.000 --> 01:01:24.999
Hip-hop had come full
circle back to its roots.

01:01:25.000 --> 01:01:33.000
[sil.]

01:01:40.000 --> 01:01:48.000
[music]

01:03:40.000 --> 01:03:44.999
African Presidents is being released today.
And for the event,

01:03:45.000 --> 01:03:50.000
we\'ve organized an international discussion regarding
Africa\'s 50 years of so-called independence.

01:04:05.000 --> 01:04:09.999
I have with me great intellectuals

01:04:10.000 --> 01:04:14.999
like (inaudible) but also
(inaudible) Lumumba\'s sons

01:04:15.000 --> 01:04:19.999
and Thomas Sankara\'s sister.

01:04:20.000 --> 01:04:24.999
Africa is on the March. Traveling
through more than 40 countries,

01:04:25.000 --> 01:04:29.999
I could feel the pulse of the continent.
Before they were betrayed

01:04:30.000 --> 01:04:34.999
or murdered, my presidents worked to affirm

01:04:35.000 --> 01:04:39.999
the place of Africa in the committee of nations.
They conceived the United States of Africa

01:04:40.000 --> 01:04:44.999
a single government, a single currency
and a single passport and army.

01:04:45.000 --> 01:04:49.999
This is the goal that we\'re
still struggling to achieve.

01:04:50.000 --> 01:04:54.999
The heroes and leaders of the past have
done their part, now it\'s up to us.

01:04:55.000 --> 01:05:03.000
[sil.]

01:05:05.000 --> 01:05:13.000
[non-English narration]

01:05:20.000 --> 01:05:28.000
[music]

01:06:55.000 --> 01:07:03.000
[music]

01:09:05.000 --> 01:09:10.000
[music]

01:10:20.000 --> 01:10:25.000
[sil.]

01:11:20.000 --> 01:11:25.000
[sil.]