Oral Poetry from Africa
A Hausa Praise-Poem from northern Nigeria, in praise of Galadima Dauda who ruled in the mid-thirteenth century. This is a good example of the simplest and oldest kind of Praise-Poetry, in which the hero’s memory is preserved in a brief description packed with meaning.
Champion of the axes of the south,
Champion of the young men of the south…
Mzilikazi was one of the chiefs who came to prominence in Natal in the 1820s, in reaction to the area’s growing trade in slaves. Shaka (see Shaka’s Praises) was the most important of these, and when Mzilikazi clashed with him in 1822, he led a small group of warriors on an 800km trek, finally settling at Bulawayo in what is now western Zimbabwe.
The varicoloured one with a black mouth,
praised in tears of men…
Recited in Ndebele by imbongi Mtshede Ndhovu to T.J. Hemens c.1970. Mtshede Ndhlovu was born when Mzilikazi was still on the throne, that is, before 1868, making him some 105 years old. His son, Bova Ndhlovu, acted as interpreter, assisting Hemans with the translation.
It roared like a calf.
He who has books is at the river crossing…
A Hausa praise poem (see also Rano), Bawa Jangwarzo was ruler (1777–1795) of Gobir, one of the seven original Hausa kingdoms. He is chiefly remembered today for sponsoring Usman dan Fodio (1754–1817), the Islamic reformer, who encouraged literacy and scholarship for both men and women, and who, after his expulsion from Gobir by Bawa’s successor, founded the city-state of Sokoto.
Causer of terror, chief of iron ore,
Son of Alasan, owner of the drum…
A Yorùbá Ìjálá (hunter’s poem) from Nigeria (see also Hunters’ Salutes). The poem describes vividly the buffalo’s attributes of speed and terrifying strength.
Buffalo, we salute you:
Butterfly of the savannah…
