[Verse 1] In the streets of Algiers I met Mandela Beneath the whitewashed balconies of the Casbah He taught me that a person grows much stronger When they help to bear the weight of every struggle And refuse to live for themselves alone In the streets of Algiers I met Fanon The wind was filled with scents of anger From the cafés rose long conversations About the lost dreams of the whole wide world And the conscience at the heart of revolutions [Chorus] Algiers, you open your doors to the wretched of the earth To the exiled, forgotten, and the rebels still standing Red Algiers, memory of the revolutionaries Your name still echoes on like a song [Verse 2] In the streets of Algiers I met Guevara The sea was shining beyond the harbor I understood we cannot just stay silent While so many lives are sinking from our sight And the world falls asleep before injustice In the streets of Algiers I met Camus Between the sunlight and the naked truth Always choosing the side of the humbled Refusing tired and fading empires And saving the human spirit in the streets [Chorus] Algiers, you open your doors to the wretched of the earth To the exiled, forgotten, and the rebels still standing Red Algiers, memory of the revolutionaries Your name still echoes on like a song [Bridge] In the streets of Algiers I met the Black Panthers With raised fists for dignity and pride For the peoples erased from history’s pages And those denied their humanity Beneath the burning stars of July nights In the streets of Algiers I heard the voices Of Fatah and the PLO Saying another road is still before us More brotherly, more just for all to share Where human worth is greater than the market [Final] To offer something more, a life of wonder A struggle for Being, not for Having To find again what is true and essential Made of hope against despair and darkness And in the streets of Algiers the memory lives on Of dreams we still refuse to abandon Like a melody carried by the evening breeze Between the sea... the uprisings... and freedom.
