Oral Poetry from Africa
A San lament from South Africa, sung by Xaa-ttin for the death of his friend the magician and rain maker Nuin-kui-ten. The halting rhythms of the English translation, and the image of the bow string which no longer vibrates, are perfectly expressive of grief. The song was originally recorded in the 1870s.
They were the people, those who
broke the string for me…
A popular Zulu song about the sinking of SS Mendi in February 1917 as it carried African Battalions belonging to the South African Native Labour Corps on their way to World War 1 in France. The ship collided in fog off the Isle of Wight with an empty merchant vessel bound for Argentina. 646 men were drowned, in one of the worst ever marine disasters.
The ship Mendi went down at sea
And sank there with the sons of Africa…
A chiSena funeral song from southern Malawi on the theme of equality in death, for rich and poor, black and white.
This path, yes, this path, yes,
think carefully of this path, o‑ye…
A lament by Sotho women, said to date from the time of Shaka Zulu’s wars. There are different versions of this song in several southern Africa languages, presenting Shaka’s achievements from the perspective of those who suffered from them.
Weakened and weeping, I remain among the ruins.
Weakened and weeping, I remain amid trackless plains…
A Yoruba funeral song from Nigeria. The metaphors have the force of proverbs, expressing but generalising the son’s grief.
Slowly the muddy pool becomes a river,
Slowly my mother’s disease becomes death…
An Akan Highlife song from Ghana, popular in the 1970s. It is by the late, well-known singer Alex Konadu (1950–2011).
Death does not like money oo! Konadu ee!
We shall all enter a hole in the earth, this death hmm!..
