Oral Poetry from Africa
Gule Wamkulu is a secret initiatory society of men from Chewa-speaking communities in Malawi, Zambia, and Mozambique. The dancers wear masks personifying the spirits of ancestors and sacred animals native to the lands. They perform primarily at funerals and memorial services but also at celebrations. This performance was recorded at Mkuwazi Village in the Salima district of Malawi.
Bury me on the veranda
Bury me on the veranda
Eyeee… so that when my mother
Should see me and say I am dead…
Jābir Ibn Samura, one of the Companions of Muhammad, described the Prophet’s face as like the Full Moon in the night sky and this allegory reappears in the following devotional poem by Shaykh Ibrāhīm Niasse (1900–1975). The poet, inspired by a night of reciting and chanting poetry until tears flowed from his eyes, praises the Prophet and the illumination of his message as his neighbours sleep.
Enslaved in love, the heart turns away from everything else
Bound in longing for the Prophet, bewildered…
The annual Ọ̀ṣun-Òṣogbo Festival takes place in the capital city of Osun State in Nigeria and lasts fourteen days. The festival celebrates the discovery of the large river in Òṣogbo by Prince Ọlároóyè in the 18th century. Oba Ọlároóyè was a prince of the city-state Iléṣà, about 20 kilometers from Òṣogbo, who had led an exploratory expedition due to water-shortages in Iléṣà. Yorùbá mythology describes the expedition encountering a powerful goddess, Ọ̀ṣun, dwelling within the river who granted permission to these pioneers to settle near the river.
Aládékojú, I am calling on you
Hail My Beloved Mother Aládékojú…
The following Oríkì praising the Orisha Èṣù Ẹlégbára, is from Ayọdele Ogundipẹ’s comprehensive academic study, Èṣù Ẹlégbára: Chance, Uncertainty in Yorùbá Mythology. The poet is Mùtíù Adélékè, described as a forty-ish trader from Ile-Olunlọyọ in Ibadan state, Nigeria.
Leisurely, I will trail after you with music,
He who creates man and never forgets him.
I will follow you leisurely with music…
Previous poems about Ògún, the Yorùbá god of blacksmiths, hunting and warfare, have praised this Òrìṣà as a terrible but necessary god. Terrible in that he is the personification of war, necessary in that he represents victory through conflict.
It is now high time for me to say as follows:
It is the god Ògún that I worship…
Another Oríkì (praise poem) dedicated to the Yorùbá goddess of trade and wealth, Aje (see also Salute to Aje, Goddess of Wealth).
The man who poverty makes a beggar among friends
Knows how the world dodges the needy…
