Oral Poetry from Africa
Lithoko are praise poems from Lesotho, which is today a landlocked country surrounded by South Africa. These may be sung to praise chiefs such as Moshoeshoe the founder of the Sotho kingdom, there are also, lithoko tsa makoloane, praises performed at initiation rites and lithoko tsa bafo, the praises of male commoners.
Be quiet and listen to celebration,
Mixed with cries of weeping…
A Sotho poem from Lesotho on the subject of weaver birds, at harvest time one of the worst predators. The sounds and rhythms of this poem, even in the English translation, imitate marvellously the twittering and bustle of the weaver birds which are stealing corn from the fields.
Tswi-tswiri! I the person, I suspect!
What have you heard that makes you suspicious?..
An interlude in a Sotho Praise-Poem from Lesotho. The poem is addressed to Nathaniel Makotoko, one of the Sotho’s most famous military commanders.
The armies left the Great Place in full strength:
And when we arrived at the place of Lesaoana…
A Sotho poem from Lesotho, in praise of the crocodile.
The crocodile is the invoker of the rain waters,
The black one of the pool…
The opening lines of a long Praise-Poem from Lesotho in praise of Moshoeshoe, the founder of the Sotho nation. Today the Kingdom of Lesotho is a landlocked country surrounded by South Africa.
You who are fond of praising the ancestors,
Your praises are poor when you leave out the warrior…
The following Northern Sotho poem appears to be about a leopard; but the allusion is to the chiefs of the Tlokwa, whose symbol was a leopard.
It is the yellow leopard with the spots
The yellow leopard of the cliffs
