Oral Poetry from Africa
The following poem by the Xhosa imbongi, David Livingston Phakamile Yali-Manisi (1926–1999), was performed at a conference hosted by the University of Natal Oral Documentation and Research Centre (South Africa) in 1985.
The forest bird grows restless
one who always goes when sent…
The following epic poem of Amoogu was composed by Kaalu Igirigiri, an Ohafia Igbo poet, and transcribed by Professor Chukwuma Azuonye from recordings made in the field between 1971 and 1977.
Odududu ndufu!
Wardrum, without whose leadership there is fear on the way!..
I am grateful to Professor Zodwa Motsa for providing us with the following poem, the praises performed after the inauguration of King Mswati III of Eswatini (also known as Swaziland) in 1986.
Mswati the black one amongst the ashen
Warrior stick of horns who settles not in gourd-drums
But enters in the seed-bushels of the buffalos…
Previous poems about Ògún, the Yorùbá god of blacksmiths, hunting and warfare, have praised this Òrìṣà as a terrible but necessary god. Terrible in that he is the personification of war, necessary in that he represents victory through conflict.
It is now high time for me to say as follows:
It is the god Ògún that I worship…
A previous Shona clan praise published here was of the Shumba Murambwi, whose totem is the lion. The following clan praise is of the Tembo-Shumba, the “Zebra-Lion”, a mythical totem animal that serves as the emblem of the Mutasa people, whose homestead is Manyikaland in eastern Zimbabwe.
Thank you, Zebra.
Thank you Chiwara,
Hornless beast of the wilderness,
The Well Dressed One…
Another Oríkì (praise poem) dedicated to the Yorùbá goddess of trade and wealth, Aje (see also Salute to Aje, Goddess of Wealth).
The man who poverty makes a beggar among friends
Knows how the world dodges the needy…
