A good-humoured Igbo song from eastern Nigeria, the singer chiding an individual about the duties of hospitality towards a guest.
Woman, though you cook without ending
And leave your pot on the fire till evening,
Though you let the food burn into charcoal
That is as black as the coal
Mined at Enugu,
The visitor stays without going,
Stays even unto midnight without sleeping.
from Oral Poetry from Africa 1984
compiled by Jack Mapanje and Landeg White,
Longman
