Oral Poetry from Africa
The subject of The Cattle Killing is one of the most baffling and controversial events in African history. In the spring of 1856, a teenaged Xhosa girl called Nongqawuse went to fetch water from a pool near the mouth of the Gxarha river. On her return, she told Mhlakaza, her uncle who was a diviner, that she had spoken with a group of the ancestors.
Letshitshiba
Le-tshi-tshi-ba
There occurred a problem and a confusion…
A popular Zulu song from Johannesburg. The singer refers mockingly to the repressive apparatus of the apartheid state.
Come here my beloved,
Come, give me a kiss…
A Xhosa song about working in the gold mines of Johannesburg. These short work songs are sung rhythmically by a group of miners to make the work easier.
A mighty bell is six o’clock:
I went to Rhini and found the men…
A Zulu song about a young migrant worker who has left home to seek jobs in Johannesburg and the search made by his siblings to find him.
We were sent by our parents
To search for our father’s child…
Improvised by the imbongi Nelson Title Mabunu at Umtata, Transkei, December 17 1970, in the course of a long poem in praise of Chief George Matanzima, co-leader of the illegal Transkei Bantustan. Mabuno was Matanzima’s official imbongi. He was a bitter enemy of the Xhosa poet Melikhaya Mbutuma, who was imbongi to the Thembu paramount chief Sabata Dalindyebo.
What do you want me to say, child of Opland?
What do you want me to say, fair-skinned one?..
