A wonderfully self-confident dance song from Somalia. The poem distinguishes the best grass for grazing and the best for hay-making or winter fodder.
The best dance is the dance of the Eastern clans,
The best people are ourselves…
Hunting Song
A Kisukuma hunting song from Tanzania. The hunter imagines, with some sympathy, the last thoughts of the wild pig he has killed with his trap.
I killed a wild pig in the trap.
It cried,
Where is my father?..
The Mahdi’s Boast
A war song from Somalia. The Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmad, was a nationalist and religious leader who expelled British forces from the Nile valley and governed the whole region for ten years before the British returned in 1898 to impose colonial rule. See also The Sacrifice.
No man exists who can lay hold of a wild elephant and lead him around,
No man exists who can grip a lion by the nape of the neck and give him a punch…
Song of the Wrestler
A Yorùbá song from Nigeria, sung by the wrestler as a prayer as he enters the arena. Each of the images takes for granted the wrestler’s natural superiority.
O Rat, help me to knock him down.
O Broken Stalk, assist me to lay him low…
Zebra
The Dirge of the Warriors’ Widows
A lament by Sotho women, said to date from the time of Shaka Zulu’s wars. There are different versions of this song in several southern Africa languages, presenting Shaka’s achievements from the perspective of those who suffered from them.
Weakened and weeping, I remain among the ruins.
Weakened and weeping, I remain amid trackless plains…