A song from the Embu region of Kenya, sung by women at work on their farms.
Ululate for me, my time for going home is not yet,
I shall go home as the sun sets…
Recitation of the Bride
An improvised recitation sung by a Yorùbá bride as she is escorted by musicians and relatives to her husband’s house. She speaks her mind about all the hopes and concerns that she has, whilst drummers announce her arrival.
Those who stand-let them stand well.
Those who stop-let them stoop well…
Vimbuza Songs
The Tumbuka people live in eastern Zambia and northern Malawi, their homeland split by the border drawn by the British in 1890. But forty years before, the Tumbuka had suffered an earlier invasion, by Ngoni people fleeing the rise of the Zulu nation in south-east Africa. After many wanderings, the Ngoni settled in the Tumbuka heartlands, bringing with them a new cattle-based economy, new patterns of settlement and new systems of marriage.
We, today’s orphans,
We, today’s orphans…
The Untiring Singer
A song of the Luo people, from Kenya. This is a courtship poem, sung by young women as they approach where their lovers are staying. It is sung in a curiously artificial style, intended to show off the girls’ voices. The doree ree yo is a passage of very high-pitched vocal acrobatics, compared by the singer to birdsong.
I am possessed,
A bird bursting on high with the ree lament
Shava, my Child
A Shona song from Zimbabwe, sung by a mother at a dance in praise of her daughter’s singing. What is especially admired is a voice higher and purer than all the others, like the new moons flute.
E! There’s my one, drowning all the others.
Listen, girls, and hear what she’s to sing!
I Am Your Betrothed
A Kgatla song from Botswana, sung by women complaining together about their husbands. The reference to ‘Khaki’ in line 5 suggests not only that the man is poor but also that he may be a court messenger or some other collaborator with the colonial authorities (see Lomwe-Chuabo Protest Songs).
I heard it said that I was betrothed
And one afternoon when I was at home
