A song from the Embu region (a town northeast of Nairobi towards Mount Kenya) of Kenya, sung by women at work on their farms.
Ululate for me, my time for going home is not yet,
I shall go home as the sun sets.
Ululate for me, my time for uttering words is not yet.
I shall utter words as the sun sets.
Let me be given beer in the biggest drinking horn
So that I may be able to dance properly,
And a place where I may cultivate and sleep there -
A guinea fowl sleeps where it scratches!
from Oral Poetry from Africa (1984)
compiled by Jack Mapanje and Landeg White,
Longman
