A Swahili song from the East African coast. It is one of the songs attributed to Liyongo, the Swahili national hero.
O tapster, give me the palm-wine
With the bitter flavour from the coconut palm
Oral Poetry from Africa
Filed Under: Pleasure Poems
Filed Under: Poems of Gods & Ancestors
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,
Filed Under: Survival Poems
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:
Filed Under: Pleasure Poems
A Shona song from Zimbabwe, praising the Mbira-player for his musicianship. The Mbira, which is sometimes called a hand-piano, is described in Lines 24–29. It has two (sometimes three) keyboards, made of metal strips, which are plucked with the thumbs, and it is set in a hollow gourd to increase the resonance.
Strike the Mbira, Expert With The Rattling Shells!
It is he The Mbira-Shatterer of whom you hear nothing but praise,
Filed Under: Epic Poems
Liyongo, the national hero of the Swahili people, lived in the area of the delta of the Tana River, north of Mombasa. Many of the poems praising him are said to have been composed by him, so that he is also celebrated as a poet.
Oh my child, be silent, do not cry;
Listen to the tale of the King of Bauri,
Filed Under: Epic Poems
Three extracts from different versions of the Sundjata epic, which is as yet the best known and most widely admired of African epics. Sundjata is a historical figure (he died in 1255), and the Sundjata legend comes down to us from a period of turmoil in West African history when the ancient empire of Ghana was in decline.
After it had happened
That Sundjata’s mother had become pregnant,
This site opens a window on something that will be new to most people, namely, the vast amount of superb poetry hidden away in the 3000 different languages spoken in Africa … More