Oral Poetry from Africa
The Swahili poetess Mwana Kupona binti Mshamu composed Utendi wa Mwanakupona (“The Book of Mwana Kupona”) for her teenage daughter, Mwana Hashima binti Sheikh, around 1858. It’s apparent from the lyrics that Mwana Kupona was very ill at the time of writing these verses and the composition reads an ailing mother’s affectionate advice to her young daughter on how she should conduct herself during her own life.
Come close to me my daughter,
and listen to my advice…
The following epic poem was transcribed by Dr Alice Werner, who was the professor of Swahili and Bantu languages at London’s School of Oriental Studies between 1917–1930. Dr Werner first encoutered the story of Miqdad and Mayasa during her visit to the village of Bomani, a village in Kenya’s Kilifi County, in 1913.
I begin with the name of the Compassionate,
and pray for the faithful one…
This is another version of the much-loved Swahili love song from the east African coast (see Serenade), probably the best known and most widely admired of all Swahili poems in translation. Like My Mwananazi, it is associated with Liyongo, the epic hero.
O lady, be calm and cry not out but attend to your suitors patiently,
listen patiently to them who have climbed up to your window…
A Swahili dance song, recorded in the 1860s, giving a glimpse of sophisticated life in the coastal cities in earlier centuries. The song is also called ‘The Stumbling Figure’. Bishop Steere calls it ‘Gungu’ or ‘The Hesitation Dance’, adding “it is the custom meet about ten or eleven at night and dance on until daybreak…”
Mother take me that I may see, may see
Beauty and ornaments at Ungama…
This is another version of the song in praise of palm-wine, attributed to Liyongo the national hero of the Swahili people. See also Liyongo’s Drinking Song for a different version of this song.
O tapster of soured wine,
from the sheath of the withered palm…
