Oral Poetry from Africa
An Acoli prayer from Uganda. We hear the words of a hunter perparing for the hunt and praying that his spear will be adequate.
The spear with the hard point,
Let it split the granite rock…
A Dinka song from South Sudan. It describes the plight of refugees who fled into Zaira in the 1960s from the war between the Khartoum government and the Anyanya nationalist movement in the south.
Gentlemen grind their grain in the land of the Congo;
The Dongolawi, the Arab, has remained at home…
This Yorùbá Ìjálá (Hunting Poem) is different, praising not an animal but a plant. Cassava, also called manioc or tapioca, is a root vegetable, rich in starch, but not so nutritious as yams or maize, and consequently grown only along the farm’s boundary.
Lafunyinrin,
a stand-by cheering the despondent…
A Hausa song from northern Nigeria, unusually for a war song performed by women. The song was recorded by the Hausa scholar C.G.B. Gidley in 1964.
Great Visitor, Son of Abdu,
Water it is that drowns whoever goes against it…
An Akan song from the Ashanti region of Ghana, sung by women at work on their farms. See also Farming Song and Pounding Songs.
Where is the owner of the bush farm?
Hold back the sun!..
