An Akan song from the Ashanti region of Ghana, sung by women at work on their farms. See also Farming Song and Pounding Songs.
Where is the owner of the bush farm?
Hold back the sun!..
The Jilted Woman
An Akan song from the Ashanti region of Ghana. Note the triumphant mixture of tenses, something that only happens in oral literature. The first line begins like an empty threat, and ends with a boast.
If you won’t marry me,
someone else has married me…
Prayer for a New-Born Child
A Ga chant from Ghana. On the eighth day after a child is born, the relatives and friends gather for the ‘out-dooring’ ceremony. Very early in the morning, the baby is brought outside for the first time. An old person takes the baby in his or her arms and raises it to the dew three times. He then chants this prayer, to which everyone present responds Yao, meaning ‘Amen’.
Hail, hail, hail, let happiness come: Yao.
Are our voices one? Yao…
Death Does Not Like Money
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!..
Poor Fowl
A song of the Ashanti people from Ghana, humorously pretending to sympathise with the poor chicken which is always used in sacrifices.
Fowl, condolences, poor, poor, poor fowl;
Fowl, condolences, poor, poor, poor fowl…
The Path and the River
An Ashanti poem from Ghana, an extract from a drum poem in praise of the river God Tano, addressed as “Kokon Tano” and “Birefia Tano” (see also Drum Address To The Earth Spirit).
The path has crossed the river,
The river has crossed the path…
