Mango After Winter

Mama planted that tree the year things got hard (long ago)
Every season it gave us nothing but shade
Then this morning… look up (look up)
Mango after winter — sweet came late but came

Four dry years under that stubborn green
Bills like harmattan, cupboards picked clean
We watered it anyway, don't ask me why
Faith is watering a tree that won't reply, year on year
Then a small yellow swelling on the highest limb
One fruit — then a hundred — where there'd never been
Gold on the branch where the drought used to be
And the whole courtyard gathered round the trunk to see
The season finally kept its promise to me

So if your harvest's been late and your hands stayed true —
If you watered in the dry and the dry near broke you —
Come stand under this tree and taste what patience grew:

Mango after winter (sweet, sweet)
Sweet came late but came (but it came!)
We cried through the dry season (we cried)
Now joy knows our name (it knows us!)
Mango after winter (pass it round)
Pass the plate this way (this way!)
No bad day could stop this fruit —
We made it anyway (anyway!)

Lu-lu-lu! (sweet!)
Lu-lu-lu! (sweet!)
Pass the plate — mango after winter! (eh!)

Cut the first one open, juice ran down my wrist
Handed Mama the ripest — "the one you missed
All those dry years, Ma" — she just smiled and said
"A slow tree still feeds you; a fast weed leaves you dead"
The little ones sticky-fingered, juice-faced, laughing in the yard
The neighbours came with bowls — nobody kept it hard
Grandma's cracked clay dish filled up to the brim
'Cause a blessing this long coming, you don't hoard —
You slice it for the whole street and you thank the Lord

So if your harvest's been late and your hands stayed true —
If you watered in the dry and the dry near broke you —
Come stand under this tree and taste what patience grew:

Mango after winter (sweet, sweet)
Sweet came late but came (but it came!)
We cried through the dry season (we cried)
Now joy knows our name (it knows us!)
Mango after winter (pass it round)
Pass the plate this way (this way!)
No bad day could stop this fruit —
We made it anyway (anyway!)

Lu-lu-lu! (sweet!)
Lu-lu-lu! (sweet!)
Pass the plate — mango after winter! (eh!)

Who watered through the dry? (we did!)
Who kept faith in the green? (we did!)
Who's tasting the sweet right now? (WE ARE!)
Then pass a slice to your neighbour — go! (mango!)
One more — who never gave up on their tree? (WE DIDN'T!)
Louder for the late bloomers! (sweet came late!)

To everyone still waiting on their season (wait for it)
To everyone who watered with no proof (keep watering)
To the slow dreams the fast world laughed at (they're ripening)
Taste this and believe again — sweet came late but came! (it came!)

Mama's hands are older than that tree
But she's the reason it still stands, you see
She never cut it down in the leanest year
Said "the sweet is coming, child — just keep it here"
And I thought the drought would be the end of us —
But a slow tree keeps a promise you can trust
Four dry years, then a branch too full to hold —
Some blessings ripen slow so they taste like gold
(let the marimba bring the sweetness back — go!)

Mango after winter
Sweet came late but came
We cried through the dry season
Now joy knows our name

Mango after winter (sweet, sweet!)
Sweet came late but came (but it came!)
We cried through the dry season (we cried!)
Now joy knows our name (it knows us!)
Mango after winter (pass it round!)
Pass the plate this way (this way!)
No bad day could stop this fruit —
We made it anyway (anyway!)
Sweet, sweet (sweet!) — sweet came late but came (it came!)

Lu-lu-lu! (sweet!)
Lu-lu-lu! (sweet!)
Pass the plate — mango after winter! (eh, eh!)

Mmm… mango after winter
Mmm… sweet came late but came
Mmm… pass the plate (pass it)

Save the seeds tonight — we plant again come rain (plant them, plant them)
A slow tree taught the whole yard how to wait for gain (worth the wait, o)
Mango after winter (mm… sweet came late, but sweet)
Next season, more fruit — bring your bowl (bring it, o)
Same tree, same yard, sweeter every year (every year)
Mango after winter (mm… sweet, and worth the wait)