A song of the Ashanti people from Ghana, humorously pretending to sympathise with the poor chicken which is always used in sacrifices.
Fowl, condolences, poor, poor, poor fowl;
Fowl, condolences, poor, poor, poor fowl…
I Saw a Gentleman the Other Day
A Dinka song from southern Sudan, commenting in satirical fashion on the vanity and greed of the gentleman in question.
I saw a gentleman the other day:
He had coils on his lower arm…
Ng’godo: Gomukomu 1942 by Gomukomu weSimbi
Another in our series of Chopi Migodo, from Mozambique, collected by the great ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey. In Gomukomu’s Ng’godo for 1942/43, work, taxation, and their effects on women are the dominant themes, against the background of oppressive Portuguese rule.
Vimbuza Songs
The Tumbuka people live in eastern Zambia and northern Malawi, their homeland split by the border drawn by the British in 1890. But forty years before, the Tumbuka had suffered an earlier invasion, by Ngoni people fleeing the rise of the Zulu nation in south-east Africa. After many wanderings, the Ngoni settled in the Tumbuka heartlands, bringing with them a new cattle-based economy, new patterns of settlement and new systems of marriage.
We, today’s orphans,
We, today’s orphans…
Ng’godo: Gomukomu 1940 by Gomukomu weSimbi
Another in our series of Chopi Migodo, from Mozambique, collected by the great ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey. Gomukomu’s Ng’godo for 1940 is a celebration of the beauty and power of Chopi music, set against the sheer pettiness of Portuguese rule with its forced labour, its taxes and its tiresome officials.
Ng’godo: Katini 1940 by Katini weNyambombe
The Migodo (singular Ng´godo)of the Chopi people of southern Mozambique are among the most exciting spectacles to be witnessed in Africa. They are annually staged entertainments made up of dances, songs and music played on orchestras of massed xylophones played by up to 48 musicians.
