Oral Poetry from Africa
This is part of the hour-long dirge chanted by the Yorùbá poet Omobayode Arowa at the state funeral of Lieutenant Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi. Adekunle Fajuyi was Military Governor of Western Nigeria until he was killed, along with Major-General Aguyi Ironsi, in July 1966. His state funeral was held in January 1967.
Dekunle, handsome man, hail!
And farewell!..
An Akan dirge from Ghana. Owusu was a Mass Education Officer, killed in a car accident in 1952. The dirge is sung by his former landlady, a trader called Koramma, who mourns him as if he were her brother.
Valiant Owusu,
The stranger on whom the citizen of the town depends,
Three Zulu songs, very commonly sung by members of the bridegroom’s family, welcoming the bride in teasing terms to her new home.
You have reached the place of weariness,
You have arrived and you will get weary!
A Kamba girls’ song from Kenya, danced at weddings when the bride is being escorted to her new home. The singer, little Kitanga, tells the bride Mulau and all her friends that it is time to stop grieving over Mulau’s departure.
Change heart,
we have wept enough over losing you, ee you!
A Hausa wedding song from northern Nigeria, sung by the bride’s girl friends as she leaves her father’s house in tears for her new husband’s compound.
From this year, you won’t go dancing,
From this year, you won’t go to the dance,
A Bemba girls’ initiation song from Zambia. The song neatly describes the delicate balance of equality between husband and wife.
The man is the peak of the house:
That is what we have understood.
