Oral Poetry from Africa
A Hadendoa poem from northern Sudan. The Handendoa live in northern Sudan, bordering the Red Sea. They supplied the majority of the supporters of Muhammed Ahmed el Mahdi (‘The Mad Mullah’) in his revolt against the British (see also the poem The Mahdi’s Boast). Like the poem Why Do We Grumble, it accepts that ‘wealth has a coat of many colours’.
I have good cultivable land sown and watered,
I have men who load my camels with trade goods…
A popular Zulu song about the sinking of SS Mendi in February 1917 as it carried African Battalions belonging to the South African Native Labour Corps on their way to World War 1 in France. The ship collided in fog off the Isle of Wight with an empty merchant vessel bound for Argentina. 646 men were drowned, in one of the worst ever marine disasters.
The ship Mendi went down at sea
And sank there with the sons of Africa…
Three Hausa poems from northern Nigeria, praising a professional drummer whose skills, with Allah’s help, have made him a wealthy man.
The drum drums health,
The drum drums wealth…
A ChiSena funeral song from southern Malawi on the theme of equality in death, for rich and poor, black and white.
This path, yes, this path, yes,
think carefully of this path, o‑ye…
An Akan song from the Ashanti region of Ghana. Note the triumphant mixture of tenses, something that only happens in oral literature. The first line begins like an empty threat, and ends with a boast.
If you won’t marry me,
someone else has married me…
A Dinka song from South Sudan. The singer complains of the breakdown of the marriage arrangements made when Ajok was a baby.
O Ajok!
Ajok whom I chose when she was carried in a sling…
