A Hausa wedding song from northern Nigeria, sung by the bride’s girl friends as she leaves her father’s house in tears for her new husband’s compound.
From this year, you won’t go dancing,
From this year, you won’t go to the dance,
Hunters’ Salutes
Three Birds
A Yorùbá song from Nigeria, chanted in praise of adornment and flamboyant clothes. The fashions of humans are compared with the bright, rich colours of various birds of the forest.
Three birds in all
There are, in the forest bounds,
Self-Praises for the Ozo Title Day
An Igbo poem from eastern Nigeria, celebrating initiation into the Nze na Ozo society. To be made Ozo is to become a pillar of the community and a member of the most revered magical-religious community within the Igbo.
I am:
The Camel that brings wealth…
In Praise of the Farmer
An Igbo poem from eastern Nigeria, praising the farmer for his fortitude and encouraging him in his cultivation.
You have wedded your hoe to the soil,
You uproot trees with bare hands,
The Sultan of Bornu
The Sultan of Bornu, A Kanuri Praise-Poem from the ancient kingdom of Bornu in northern Nigeria. The poem, which was recorded in 1926, describes an individual king, Sultan Momadu Ajimi, who reigned in 1737–51. But it is also a statement of what an ideal king should be like, providing the Sultan with a pattern that the official Praise-Singer implies he should follow.
Carefully weave the acts of kingship
Hear all and weave…
