Oral Poetry from Africa
A Gikuyu song from Kenya, describing a battle during the Independence struggle in the 1950s. General Kariba’s group in the Kenya Levellation Army fought the British on Tumu Tumu Hill near Kirimukuyu. The heroism of Waruanja who went disguised to spy out the British position, and of Kanjunio, the girl who brought back his report, and of Gakuru who sacrificed his life to destroy the machine guns, are all commemorated.
Listen and hear this story
Of the Tumu Tumu Hill!
A Gonga song from the Kafa Highlands of south west Ethiopia. During the mid-nineteenth century, according to tradition, the Kafa king asked his people to prepare for war against the Gimma, a powerful sultanate on their northern borders. The people refused to fight.
If we do not present the Gimma with big bulls,
Large steers, beautiful concubines, ivory and slaves,
An Akan poem from Ghana, sung by women in praise of the returning warrior. The camel blanket and the sandals on which Agyei is described as treading are metaphors for the men who are carrying him in triumph on their shoulders.
He is coming, he is coming,
Treading along on camel blanket in triumph.
Three extracts from the long Zulu Praise-Poem about Shaka, the Zulu king. Shaka succeeded Dingiswayo as head of the Zulu clan in 1818; by the time of his assassination by Dingane in 1828, he had become King of the Zulu nation.
Dlungwana son of Ndaba!
Ferocious one of the Mbelebele brigade,
A Tswana Praise-Poem from Botswana, chanted in praise of Seepapitso, chief of the Ngwaketse people 1910–16. Seepapitso’s main achievement was to improve local water supplies by building dams and sinking boreholes. He is also remembered for his defeat of a party of Boers who in 1914 invaded his territory in an attempt to cross into Namibia.
Hey there, men of the Buffalo-thorn,
Do you still argue with me?
