The Bull Kills

Video Find of the Day

Toro Mata is an Afro-Peruvian song written by Carlos "Caitro" Soto. If I'm reading the description right, here he is performing it himself. I found the song on the compilation album Afro-Peruvian Classics: the Soul of Black Peru.

The website for the album has English translations of all the songs. Here's the one for Toro Mata, which is sung by Lucila Campos on the album. See especially the final note on "la ponde."

"Refrain:
Toro Mata, the bull kills
The bull kills, dancing bull, the bull kills

The old bull is dead
Tomorrow we’ll eat meat, the bull is dead
The old bull has died
Tomorrow we’ll feast, the bull is dead

His color doesn’t let him move out of the way quickly enough
and the bull might kill him
That man’s color doesn’t permit him to hide
and the bull might kill him

Don’t cut him with the rope
It’ll get too bloody
Don’t cut him with the rope
It’ll get too bloody

Here’s Pitité the drummer, the music’s kicking!
Ay, la ponde, la ponde, ponde, ponde
This black man is not from here
This black man is from Acari
Who brought this black man here?
We must kill this black man
Ay, la ponde, la ponde, ponde, ponde

La ponde translated from the KiKôngo language means: I twist, I twist/I kill, I kill."