Oral Poetry from Africa
Mphande kaSenzangakhona, Zulu king (1840–72), was half-brother to both Shaka (1816–28) and Dingane (1828–40). When Dingane assassinated Shaka in 1828, and seized the throne, Mphande survived the general massacre of Senzangakona’s descendants, a sign of Dingane’s contempt. But after Dingane’s catastrophic defeat by the Boers in 1838, Mphande took his revenge.
Mdayi make reply to the land across:
Who is he that can dare to summon Mdayi?…
A Yorùbá poem describing the performance of a magical enchantment performed at a crossroads by someone seeking wealth and good fortune in life.
I am waiting at the crossroads
I look to the right…
One variety of praise poetry common across Africa are praises for one’s own clan. The Shumba Murambwi praise poem celebrates the ancestors and lineage of a Shona clan from Zimbabwe. Whilst recorded by Hodza in 1985, many of the allusions to events, personages and places within this poem are provided by Alec Pongweni from his fascinating book The Oral Traditions of the Shona People of Zimbabwe.
Thank you, The Rejected One
Thank you, the Lion…
The Basotho have been selling their labour to South Africa first on the railways, then in the diamond mines of Kimberley and the gold mines of Johannesburg since the days when Moshoeshoe successfully repulsed attempts to absorb his mountain kingdom.
We came to the railway magistrate;
We came and asked him where our deserters’ train was…
A ChiChewa song from the southern region of Malawi about the perils of matrilocal marriage. The singer has married into “a women’s village”, Njenjema, where the land is inherited through the female line and everything is controlled by the wife’s family.
At Njenjema, do not dare
At Njenjema, do not dare…
We were sent the following poem, a modern working on the Yorùbá folklore tale of Olúrónbí, by Oluwatoba Opemip who is a student of Adekunle Ajasin University in Ondo state, Nigeria.
Twice a union stroll a year
Even when these amulets of riches…
