A Swahili poem, well known along the East Coast of Africa. The poem is a husband’s praise of his wife Mwananazi.
Give me a chair that I may sit down
And serenade my Mwananazi,
Serenade
A Swahili love-song from the East African coast, and probably the best known and most widely admired of all Swahili poems in translation. Like Mwananazi, it is associated with Liyongo, the Swahili national hero.
O lady, be calm and cry not but sing to your suitors.
Sing to those who guide you and to the discerning passers-by
To a Young Lady
An Igbo poem from eastern Nigeria, consisting of a series of metaphors for the beauty and the goodness of the young lady who is being praised.
Young lady, you are
A mirror that must not go out in the sun,
