Oral Poetry from Africa
Evans Okoyo is a Kenyan poet who has been building a following on his Youtube channel. One powerul poem, Amuna Wachne Rach (“Amuna, You are Bad News”) addresses alcoholism. Evans says that he was motivated to write this composition following the untimely deaths of some of his good friends.
The first few of minutes of the video introduce us to the central figure of the poem, a drunkard who begins conversing with “Amuna”, his bottle of liquor.
Whilst the following poem by Samuel Olugbeminiyi principally concerns the Òrìṣà Ṣàngó, it is also a retelling of the most well-known myth about the Yorùbá goddess Ọba and her rivalry with the goddess Ọ̀ṣun for Ṣàngó’s affections.
Elempe’s people accorded Torosi’s son with native intelligence,
He was possessed with bits of four hundred deities…
A new poem on the theme of survival, by Ghanaian poet Kwame Brenya, translated from Twi into English by Adjei Agyei-Baah.
Extravagant living keep you happy today, but tomorrow comes your misery
Frugal living, the wise approach, Kwame, that’s my choice…
A poem sent to us by Amore David Olamide, praising the Ijebu people of Yorùbáland. The Ijebu kingdom was formed around the fifteenth century and due to its position on the trade routes between Lagos and Ibadan became wealthy and powerful in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Ijebu have historically been praised for their business acumen and talent for trade.
If Ijebu prefer,
They will weave it a bit…
A modern poem in praise of Efunsetan Aniwura, a Yorùbá woman who rose to a position of great wealth and political power in Ibadan, Nigeria, during the mid-19th century.
Elegbe, let us not toy with a raging fire
for if the thumb get burnt,
all fingers shall suffer…
A modern poem in the traditional manner of an offering and petition to one’s gods and ancestors, sent to us by Adjei Agyei-Baah.
We have come to you with our gourd of tears
take, accept and make us men of huge testicles…
