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,
Oral Poetry from Africa
Filed Under: Protest & Satirical Poems
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,
Filed Under: Protest & Satirical Poems
A Yorùbá poem from Nigeria. Although the subject matter is serious the tone is light-hearted as the poet uses humour to explore the issue of social obligations in a time of hardship.
The owner of yam peels his yam in the house:
A neighbour knocks at the door.
Filed Under: Protest & Satirical Poems
Poetic justice. this neat phrase, once used to describe the Chopi musicians of southern Mozambique, refers to the rule in many African societies that allows poets an unusual freedom of speech. Sons may criticise their fathers, wives their husbands, workers their employers, and everybody the chiefs or officials who rule them, so long as it is done through poetry or song. It is a freedom which the rulers of some independent African States have found embarrassing and unacceptable.
Filed Under: Poems of Gods & Ancestors
Three Zulu hymns. Isaiah Shembe, the founder and leader of the Zulu Church which bears his name, wrote many hymns. In them, Zulu and Christian traditions are united to express the aspirations of an exploited people.
I shouted day and night:
Why did you not hear me?
Filed Under: Poems of Gods & Ancestors
A Gikuyu nationalist song from Kenya, from the days of the Independence struggle. These songs were performed in the forest where the fighters would camp, and later a number of the songs were published in what became known as the Kikuyu Hymnbook.
When our Kimathi ascended
Into the mountain alone…
Filed Under: Poems of Gods & Ancestors
An extract from a Sotho Praise-Poem from Lesotho. In 1926, there was a succession dispute over the Paramount Chieftaincy in which the Roman Catholic missionaries supported Chief Seeiso’s rival.
Seeiso accepts no cowards;
The children of the family of Mary he rejects:
This site opens a window on something that will be new to most people, namely, the vast amount of superb poetry hidden away in the 3000 different languages spoken in Africa … More