Oral Poetry from Africa
The Gurage people traditionally inhabit the fertile region of southwest Ethiopia where they grow a banana-like plant called Ensete, as well as coffee and khat. The diligent farmer is often praised in Chaha (the local language of which there are various dialects) songs as the model Gurage citizen and he is depicted on the Ethiopian dollar ploughing his fields.
O man who cultivates the field, how great is your merit!
Wealth flows out from your fingers…
Here’s something very unusual, a Somali Gabay that makes fun of the form. Specifically, this is a mock-heroic version of the poem The News to Rome, with its celebration of holy war and camel raiding. In this version, the “true men” launch an expedition to a brothel where they eat the addictive stimulant “qaat”.
By the Herer ravine,
if at noon, you gulp down an unpalatable lunch
Sleep you should not enjoy
— you must wage a holy struggle for the soul…
Another Somali Gabay, describing a camel raid and once again the fate of the British officer Corfield in 1913 (see The Death of Richard Corfield). This version is notable for its emphasis on the role of the poet in pastoral warfare. His task is to pray for the success of the expedition and to curse the enemy clan.
Residing at Taleeh, we raised the question of holy war.
At once seventy hundred Dervishes selected powerful horses…
The Kingdom of the Ganda people is the largest of the traditional kingdoms making up Uganda, comprising all of Uganda’s central region, bordering Lake Victoria, and including the capital Kampala.
Nanayanja,
beat the drum, let it speak out…
A song composed to celebrate the defeat of the British army under Lord Chelmsford at the battle of Isandlwana in January 1879. The defeat brought a decisive end to the first British invasion of Zululand.
Thou the great and mighty chief!
Thou hast an army!..
This Somali Gabay was composed by Muhammad Abd Allah al-Hasan (1856 — 1920), the religious and military leader. Known to the British as the “Mad Mullah”, he established the Dervish state in Somalia, and fought against British, Italian and Ethiopian forces, before eventually being defeated by the British in 1920.
To begin with, I had neglected poetry and had let it dry up
I had sent it west in the beginning of the spring rains…
