Oral Poetry from Africa
An Akan song from the Ashanti region of Ghana. Note the triumphant mixture of tenses, something that only happens in oral literature. The first line begins like an empty threat, and ends with a boast.
If you won’t marry me,
someone else has married me…
A Dinka song from South Sudan. The singer complains of the breakdown of the marriage arrangements made when Ajok was a baby.
O Ajok!
Ajok whom I chose when she was carried in a sling…
A lament by Sotho women, said to date from the time of Shaka Zulu’s wars. There are different versions of this song in several southern Africa languages, presenting Shaka’s achievements from the perspective of those who suffered from them.
Weakened and weeping, I remain among the ruins.
Weakened and weeping, I remain amid trackless plains…
A Yorùbá funeral song from Nigeria. The metaphors have the force of proverbs, expressing a son’s grief and mourning for his mother.
Slowly the muddy pool becomes a river,
Slowly my mother’s disease becomes death…
An Akan Highlife song from Ghana, popular in the 1970s. It is by the late, well-known singer and guitarist Alex Konadu (1950–2011) who was known for his contribution to the Highlife tradition.
Death does not like money oo! Konadu ee!
We shall all enter a hole in the earth, this death hmm!..
An improvised recitation sung by a Yorùbá bride as she is escorted by musicians and relatives to her husband’s house. She speaks her mind about all the hopes and concerns that she has, whilst drummers announce her arrival.
Those who stand-let them stand well.
Those who stop-let them stoop well…
