Oral Poetry from Africa
The goddess Aje appears within Yoruba mythology as a patroness of trade and economic prosperity. The following oriki is addressed to Aje and also describes the ways in which wealth effects human affairs.
Aje, supreme god of wealth.
Benevolent provider of all human needs…
A previous poem for the Yoruba trickster god Eshu (see Eshu, God of Fate) describes him as a deity who loves disrupting the laws of probability and creating impossible contradictions of time and space. As an orisha who crosses boundaries, his shrines are usually located at crossroads and at the entrances to homes. Another important station for Eshu is the marketplace.
People of the market, clear the way!
We are coming through the market gate…
A poem sent to us by Amore David Olamide, praising the Ijebu people of Yorubaland. The Ijebu kingdom was formed around the fifteenth century and due to its position on the trade routes between Lagos and Ibadan became wealthy and powerful in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Ijebu have historically been praised for their business acumen and talent for trade.
If Ijebu prefer,
They will weave it a bit…
A modern poem in praise of Efunsetan Aniwura, a Yoruba woman who rose to a position of great wealth and political power in Ibadan, Nigeria, during the mid‐19th century.
Elegbe, let us not toy with a raging fire
for if the thumb get burnt,
all fingers shall suffer…
A Shona song, sung by women to accompany the stamping or pounding of maize into flour (see also Pounding Songs).
You who are at the men’s meeting place,
The amount of sadza in the hand should be fine…
A modern poem in the traditional manner of an offering and petition to one’s gods and ancestors, sent to us by Adjei Agyei‐Baah.
We have come to you with our gourd of tears
take, accept and make us men of huge testicles…
