Oral Poetry from Africa
An Akan Highlife song from Ghana, popular in the 1970s. It is by the late, well-known singer and guitarist Alex Konadu (1950–2011) who was known for his contribution to the Highlife tradition.
Death does not like money oo! Konadu ee!
We shall all enter a hole in the earth, this death hmm!..
A Yorùbá funeral poem from Nigeria. Within a few lines the poem evokes the weight of bereavement, and contrasts the reverence in which some deaths are held with the unsentimentality of others.
I cannot carry it
I cannot carry it…
An Ashanti drum poem from Ghana (see The Drum-History of Mampon for more about drum poems). The poem is praising the Earth which supports us in life and receives us in death.
Earth, condolences,
Earth, condolences…
A very old Ngoni poem from Malawi. This was a poem traditionally performed at weddings, but became popularly sung at other occasions such as church meetings. The refrain, ‘the earth does not get fat’, refers to the earth constantly consuming the dead.
The earth does not get fat.
It makes an end of those who wear the head plumes
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,
This is part of the hour-long dirge chanted by the Yorùbá poet Omobayode Arowa at the state funeral of Lieutenant Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi. Adekunle Fajuyi was Military Governor of Western Nigeria until he was killed, along with Major-General Aguyi Ironsi, in July 1966. His state funeral was held in January 1967.
Dekunle, handsome man, hail!
And farewell!..
