Music
The Women Are Coming
Bev wrote and recorded "The Women Are Coming" cd single after reading an article about the takeover of the Chevron/Texaco Oil Terminal in Nigeria by a group of village women who occupied the terminal for 10 days and negotiated for improved living conditions in their village.
Listen Online — The Women Are Coming
Lyrics — The Women Are Coming
Only a creek separates their village
from the terminal of Chevron Texaco
Pumping oil for 40 years,
the village watched the oil empire grow
As life for them got harder,
the women's discontent grew every day
So they wrote a letter to the corporation
hoping someone would listen to what they had to say.
Around the corner – the women are coming
Around the corner – the women are coming
Around the corner – the women are coming
Around the corner – the women are coming
Letters, letters we get lots of letters said the Chevron CEO
They get lost in the shuffle and the bustle. We've got a business to run you know?
Mama Ayo felt insulted. She's the one who wrote the letter.
To disrespect her made her mad.
So she called upon her neighbors,
and they discussed the options that they had
Woman to woman, shack to shack
From dugout canoe, across and back
The rivers and creeks that cross the land
The women of Ugborodo made a plan
Around the corner – the women are coming
Around the corner – the women are coming
Around the corner – the women are coming
Around the corner – the women are coming
Hundreds of women gathered by the riverfront
before sunrise on July 8
And watched the Chevron boat approach the dock
to take their men to work that day
It took the captain by surprise
when the women came on board and left the men behind
Sailing past the Chevron guards they set foot on company grounds for the very first time.
Woman to woman, shack to shack
From dugout canoe, across and back
The rivers and creeks that cross the land
The women of Ugborodo took a stand
You've been getting rich for 40 years
off the oil from Nigerian land
We don't think it's fair,
and we will stay right here,
until you answer our demands.
For 10 days and nights they bargained hard
‘til the company agreed
To build schools and roads and hospitals
and to provide electricity.