Oral Poetry from Africa
A song from the Kipsigis people of the Kericho highlands in south-west Kenya, celebrating the beauty of the landscape. The description is almost entirely in terms of the singer’s cattle and of the scene’s colours.
We live at the field of Kagipsirich,
We live where the calf, the calf plays with the calabash…
A Kipsigi war song from Kenya. Though the song describes the army and its exploits, the purpose of the raid is to capture cattle, this time from the Masai (see also the Cattle Raid). The names in the song are of people and places.
Child’s mother oo wo ho
Child’s mother oo wo ho
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:
