Oral Poetry from Africa
Five Swahili songs from the Beni Dance which is popular throughout East Africa. Beni first became popular in Swahili-speaking communities at the end of the nineteenth century.
We Marini are the people of Paradise;
We long to go to our home on the coast.
These Arinoti are people of Hell.
A Kipsigi war song from Kenya. Though the song describes the army and its exploits, the purpose of the raid is to capture cattle, this time from the Masai (see also the Cattle Raid). The names in the song are of people and places.
Child’s mother oo wo ho
Child’s mother oo wo ho
A Chaha song from the Gurage people of Ethiopia. The song recommends hard work and cooperation as a cure for poverty, and explains how vanity and recklessness are its causes.
One expels and drives away poverty
By holding the gaza-wood of the plough,
A Yorùbá poem from the Iwì Egúngún traditional. Iwì Egúngún is the poetry of masqueraders, who personify the ancestors in the Egúngún masks. Through the masks, the ancestors comment wisely or satirically on the living.
The star is trying to outshine the moon,
The frog is preparing a trick to get wings,
A Yorùbá poem from Nigeria, and among the noblest of all Ìjálá (hunters’ chants). Many different versions of this chant have been published, but all reveal the same admiration and wonder at this animal’s qualities.
Elephant, opulent creature, elephant,
huge as a hill even when kneeling:
Elephant, robed in honour,
a demon, flapping fans of war:
