Oral Poetry from Africa
An Igbo poem from eastern Nigeria, celebrating initiation into the Nze na Ozo society. To be made Ozo is to become a pillar of the community and a member of the most revered magical-religious community within the Igbo.
I am:
The Camel that brings wealth…
An Igbo poem from eastern Nigeria, praising the farmer for his fortitude and encouraging him in his cultivation.
You have wedded your hoe to the soil,
You uproot trees with bare hands,
An Akan poem from Ghana, sung by women in praise of the returning warrior. The camel blanket and the sandals on which Agyei is described as treading are metaphors for the men who are carrying him in triumph on their shoulders.
He is coming, he is coming,
Treading along on camel blanket in triumph.
A Shona Praise-Poem from Zimbabwe, sung by the blacksmith’s wife in praise of her husband. His skills seem almost supernatural (he is a ‘craftsman’, a ‘wizard’, an ‘expert’), and his hoes, axes, hatchets, adzes and knives are bringing great wealth to his family.
Today this place is full of noise and jollity.
The guiding spirit that enables my husband to forge makes him do wonders.
A Gonga Praise-Poem from the Kafa High lands of south-west Ethiopia. The poem records the drama of a succession dispute.
SINI
After the death of Gamma Kegocci,
Tumi Taki has left me empty-handed.
Three extracts from the long Zulu Praise-Poem about Shaka, the Zulu king. Shaka succeeded Dingiswayo as head of the Zulu clan in 1818; by the time of his assassination by Dingane in 1828, he had become King of the Zulu nation.
Dlungwana son of Ndaba!
Ferocious one of the Mbelebele brigade,
