Lyrics

This song was composed by my older brother, Youssoupha Cissokho. The Wolof word xarit means friend, and Youssoupha wrote this song to celebrate the power of strong friendships. This rang true to him one day after moving away from his neighborhood. Suddenly he was in a foreign place, by himself, and knew nobody; everything felt uncomfortable. When Youssoupha sings this song at home, people stop whatever they are doing, and they come to sing the choruses at the top of their lungs to celebrate being together. During the verses, he sings the names of some of his childhood friends, so in this adaptation I sing for some of mine.

Oh how I miss my friends / we were born together / we played together / we grew up together / this was such a long time ago / I’ll never forget it / I remember it like it was yesterday / true friends are everything