Oral Poetry from Africa
Oral Poetry
from Africa
Compiled by Jack Mapanje and Landeg White
Published by Longman 1984
Now out of print,
this title shall soon be available as a PDF e-Book.
Price: TBC
Eshu turns right into wrong, wrong into right.
When he is angry, he hits a stone until bleeds.
When he is angry, he sits on the skin of an ant.
When he is angry, he weeps tears of blood.
Eshu slept in the house -
But the house was too small for him:
Eshu slept on the verandah -
But the verandah was too small for him:
Eshu slept in a nut -
At last he could stretch himself!
Eshu walked through the groundnut farm.
The tuft of his hair was just visible:
If it had not been for his huge size,
He would not be visible at all.
Lying down, his head hits the roof:
Standing up, he cannot look into the cooking pot.
He throws a stone today
And kills a bird yesterday!
"This anthology, freshly bathed, towelled and wrapped in new linen, is a delight to explore. The student and the discerning general reader will find this amazing collection informative, pleasing and startling ... I cannot fully express the liveliness of these poems, their immediacy, topicality, their direct reference to events and people ... The appearance of this book on the African Literature shelves is indeed my first pleasant surprise from what I thought was to be Orwell's 1984."
Dambudzo Marechera