A Yorùbá song from Nigeria, chanted in praise of adornment and flamboyant clothes. The fashions of humans are compared with the bright, rich colours of various birds of the forest.
Three birds in all
There are, in the forest bounds,
Oral Poetry from Africa
Filed Under: Pleasure Poems
A Yorùbá song from Nigeria, chanted in praise of adornment and flamboyant clothes. The fashions of humans are compared with the bright, rich colours of various birds of the forest.
Three birds in all
There are, in the forest bounds,
Filed Under: Pleasure Poems
A song from the Kalela Dance of the Zambian Copperbelt. The original language of this song is a form of Bemba spoken on the Copperbelt and easily understood by other people working in the mines. Most of the songs comment satirically on life on the Copperbelt.
The Watchtower were trying cunningly to convert me on Saturday,
That I should go to their meeting-place at two o’clock on Sunday.
Filed Under: Pleasure Poems
A Chopi song from southern Mozambique. This song is taken from one of the Chopi Migodo (sing. Ng’godo). These are long entertainments, each lasting for some forty-five minutes, played on orchestras of massed timbila, or xylophones.
Hark how the music thunders!
Listen with your wives and hear the call.
Filed Under: Pleasure Poems
O jade ko da enu ona koja.
It goes outside, it does not cross the threshold.
Filed Under: Pleasure Poems
Debbo baleejo metta-hakkiiloojo.
A black woman with a nasty temper.
Filed Under: Pleasure Poems
Chyathie ikenegenaga chyoka ikerete.
Going they talk much, coming back they keep silent.
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