Oral Poetry from Africa
Three poems of the Sukuma people of Tanzania, referring to the colonial invasions. The first two poems are songs of resistance, dating from the 1890s, when the German armies first arrived. Note the references helmets, wooden legs (i.e., long khaki trousers with tall boots) and rifles.
You my wife, Mama Mgumba, stop here:
Let us expel him out of our house!…
A Hausa Praise-Poem from northern Nigeria. Rano was a chief killed in battle around 1870. The poem’s emphasis is placed very firmly and vividly on Rano’s exploits in battle up to the time of his death.
Sarkin Rano is a beloved of God;
Since he fell in battle, marriage has become unmanageable…
An Acoli poem from Uganda, taunting the person foolish enough to try to block the speakers path. The poem was collected and translated by the famous Ugandan poet Okot p’Bitek.
Coward, crawl back into your mother’s womb!
We are sons of the brave
A song of a Shona clan from Zimbabwe, boasting of the invincibility of their ancestors as a warning to other rival clans. The ‘Sons of Chihuri’ say that their enemy has taken on more than he bargained for.
We, the grandsons of Makomo,
are not treated like that!
No one in this country plays with us…
A Kipsigi war song from Kenya. Though the song describes the army and its exploits, the purpose of the raid is to capture cattle, this time from the Masai (see also the Cattle Raid). The names in the song are of people and places.
Child’s mother oo wo ho
Child’s mother oo wo ho
A Yorùbá Oríkì (praise-poem) from Nigeria. Ògún is the god of iron and metallurgy. He is pictured as a blacksmith, but presides over every activity in which iron is used — hoes for cultivating, cutlasses for reaping, guns for hunting, cars for travelling, and so on. He therefore becomes a god of creativity and of harvesting, of hunting and of warfare, of invention and exploration and destruction.
Ogun kills on the right and destroys on the right.
Ogun kills on the left and destroys on the left.
