Oral Poetry from Africa
A Gonga song from the Kafa Highlands of south west Ethiopia. During the mid-nineteenth century, according to tradition, the Kafa king asked his people to prepare for war against the Gimma, a powerful sultanate on their northern borders. The people refused to fight.
If we do not present the Gimma with big bulls,
Large steers, beautiful concubines, ivory and slaves,
A Masai poem from Kenya, describing a raid on the cattle of the Somalis. The first half boasts of the raiders’ skill in evading detection — by the Europeans playing golf, by the police askaris and by the night watchman who snored ‘like a hippo‘. The second half rejoices over the beauty of the cattle they have seized.
The Europeans playing golfu,
Ho! We saw them!
Ten Masai cattle songs, this time from Tanzania. These songs are from the Baraguyu dialect, and reveal an intense love of cattle and enjoyment of raiding.
The Europeans of Kilosa are proud of the police there,
But we, we are proud of our chosen loibon,
A Shona poem from Zimbabwe, recited by the farmer himself at a beer party given for his friends to celebrate his harvest. The poem ends with a well-known song in which everybody joined.
I have ploughed and I have sweated,
And now I am enjoying my crops, my friends,
Six songs, all from Malawi, sung by women using mortar and pestle to pound grain to flour, the thud of the pestle providing the songs’ rhythm.
Pounding grain,
Pounding grain makes you cry…
Pounding grain makes you cry, begins the second poem of this section. The song draws up a list of hardships which could be continued almost indefinitely. These poems are about farming and hunting, about pounding and foraging, about cattle-herding and cattle-raiding, and about warfare against neighbouring peoples and against colonial invaders. They deal with the difficulties of survival where famine, disease and violence are constant threats.
