A Kipsigi song from Kenya. The old man is appealing to his clan, the Kapmorosek, after his son has been murdered and his cattle stolen in a raid by a rival clan.
Send a message to the Kapmorosek,
Tell them I am not as in past years:
Come and take back these cattle:
My big son has been murdered.
I have been torn like a piece of cloth,
I feel helpless as a pond.
I am not as in past years
When we were harvesting the fields,
When I was killing elephants:
Now the hyena of the tall grass devours me
Because I have no son living.
from Social Institutions of the Kipsigis,
by J.G. Peristiany
Routledge & Kegan Paul & Humanities Press
