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…
Zulu War Song
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!..
Defeat of the Infidels
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…
The Death of Richard Corfield
A famous Somali gabay composed by Muhammad Abd Allah al-Hasan (1856 — 1920), the religious and military leader who established the Dervish state in Somalia. Richard Corfield (1882–1913) was a British colonial police officer, appointed in 1912 as commander of the Somaliland Camel Constabulary, charged with maintaining order but instructed to avoid any confrontation with ‘Abd Allāh al-Hasan. Disobeying this order in August 1913, he launched his 110 Camel Police against a Dervish force of 2,750. Most of his men were elimated and Corfield himself was killed. The poem is vivid for instructing Corfield what story to tell when he arrives in hell.
You have died, Corfield, and are no longer in this world,
a merciless journey was your portion…
A War Gabay
Another Somali Gabay (see Bitter & Sweet: a Somali Gabay for details of the form). This one was composed by chieftain belonging to the Ogaden clan, living in eastern Somalia, and his dispute is with the Isaaq clan, living to the north-west. His son has been killed in a skirmish with the Isaaq, and he has demanded 200 camels in compensation. He has been offered 100 and, rejecting that, chants this war song composed of a single long and alliterative sentence, ostensibly addressed to his horse ‘Aynabo, but in fact to the enemy. This gabay was recorded in 1951 by Margaret Lawrence, whose husband Jack was a civil engineer in what was then British Somaliland.
If you, oh ‘Aynabo, my fleet and fiery horse,
Do not grow battle-worn, and slow of foot, and weak…
Hunting Song — Ambo
An Ambo song, for men out in the bush hunting game. The Ambo are a tiny group in northern Zambia, numbering less than 3,500, and speaking a language related to Bisa. The father tells his son that the hunt is taking them too far for him to accompany them.
A little child has cried:
I’ll go with you, father…
