Oral Poetry from Africa
The penultimate in a series of six poems from the Xhosa poet, Melikhaya Mbutuma. This was recited in February 1963, two months after the fourth poem (see also parts one, two and three for the background).
How exasperating to lack fighters when there are men.
How frustrating to look in vain for volunteers…
The fourth in a series of six poems from the Xhosa poet Melikhaya Mbutuma, this was recorded five months after the third poem (see also parts one and two for the background and parts five and six for the rest).
The rulers amaze me in their understanding of man,
The genii have confounded me in their conception of the sanctity of man.
A Hausa example of something that happens across West Africa, but is not often recorded. A singer accosts a prominent person in public, in this case a merchant, and begins praising him. But the praises are ambiguous, and unless the singer is rewarded, they slip into savage satire.
There is no god but Allah,
this is the praise of Allah…
