Read Oral Literature in Africa Online
Authors: Ruth Finnegan
Now that you are near / Write, In the Name of God / name of Him and the Beloved / together with his Companions.
When you have thus acknowledged / the Name of God the Mighty / then let us pray for His bounty / as God shall deem fit for us.
A son of Adam is nought / and the world is not ours / nor is there any man / who shall endure for ever.
My child, accept my advice / together with my blessing / God will protect you / that He may avert you from evil.
Take this amulet that I give you / fasten it carefully upon a cord / regard it as a precious thing / that you may cherish it with care.
Let me string for you a necklace / of pearls and red coral / let me adorn you as a beautiful woman / when it shines upon your neck.
For love let me give you a clasp / a beautiful one without flaw / wear it upon your neck / and you shall perceive benefits.
While you shall hold to my counsel / my child, you shall escape trouble / you shall pass through this world / and cross over to the next.
(Harries 1962: 73–5)
After this affectionate opening, the mother goes on to instruct her daughter as to her religious duties, her duties to her husband, household management, and kindness to the poor, followed by her own confession of faith as a Muslim. It concludes:
Read, all you women / so that you may understand / that you may bear no blame / in the presence of God the Highest.
Read, you who are sprouts of wheat / obey your menfolk / so that you may not be touched by the sorrows / of the after-life and of this.
She who obeys her husband / hers are honour and charm / wherever she shall go / her fame is published abroad.
She who composed this poem / is one lonely and sorrowful / and the greatest of her sins / Lord, Thou wilt her forgive.
(Harries 1962: 85–7)
In form the
tenzi
are modelled on Arabic poetry. Each line is divided into four parts (sometimes written as separate lines), of which the first three rhyme and the fourth acts as a terminal rhyme throughout the poem. This terminal rhyme is often a double vowel, and though these do not always rhyme to our ears (they may be -iya, -eya, -ua, -owa, etc.), added length can be given to both of the vowels in actual reading or recitation. There is a conventional dialect in which
tenzi
are written, but, unlike the involved syntax of lyrics, the narrative is expressed in a straightforward manner. The stock themes and form—in particular the opening prayers and invocations to God, the great emphasis on the frailty of this world, exhortations to religious duty, and the torment of the wicked—are strikingly similar to the corresponding Hausa ones from the other side of the continent.
This
tenzi
form has by no means lost its popularity in East Africa. It frequently appears in the vernacular press, now mainly written in the Roman as distinct from the traditional Arabic Swahili script. It is now also sometimes employed as a vehicle for Christian rather than Islamic doctrine, as in the
utenzi
reported by Knappert in which passages from the Gospel have been cast in the traditional epic style,
12
or for political expression as in the
utenzi
about Nyerere’s life, recited in his presence following his inauguration as President in 1965.
13
As has frequently been pointed out, this form of verse, with its conventional prosody and themes, ‘lends itself to indefinite
longueurs
’ (Werner 1928: 355) in the hands of a poetaster; but, treated by a master, it can result in magnificent epic poetry.
Though the extent and antiquity of the Swahili tradition of religious verse is probably unparalleled in subsaharan Africa, it is proper to remind ourselves that the influence of Islam, unlike that of Christianity, has a long history in several parts of the continent. The literary tradition that accompanied it, to a greater or lesser degree in different areas, may be particularly evident and well documented among such peoples as the Swahili, Somali, Hausa, Fulani, or Mandingo and have resulted there in many well-known compositions in the local languages. But it may well have had an even wider literary impact to an extent that still remains to be explored.
II
Apart from Islamic verse the most common type of religious poetry in Africa seems to be the hymn. A common feature of this form is that the religious content consists of invocation or supplication rather than narrative, and is sometimes closely allied to panegyric.
14
The detailed subject-matter and context, however, vary greatly with the differing religious beliefs and institutions of each people.
It is among certain West African peoples that hymns are developed in their most specialized form. This is in keeping with the elaborate pantheon of divinities recognized by such peoples as the Yoruba, Fon, or Akan. Among the Yoruba, for instance, each divinity has not only his own specialist priests and customary forms of worship, but also his own symbolic associations, his iconography, and his literature, including both myths and hymns.
Thus, for example, the Yoruba divinity Eshu-Elegba (the messenger deity and ‘god of mischief’) has his own cult of worshippers with their special rituals and organization. He is represented sculpturally in shrines according to special conventions which also appear in the insignia worn by his worshippers and in bas-relief representations, with the recurrent motifs of a club, whistle, high head-dress, cowries, and the colour black. The praises of Eshu chanted by his particular worshippers and priests bring out his paradoxical nature: he is shown as big and small, youngest and oldest, black and white, ‘one who defies boundaries and limitations with gay abandon’.
15
His hymns (or praises) are expressed as a series of paradoxes:
When he is angry he hits a stone until it bleeds. When he is angry he sits on the skin of an ant. When he is angry he weeps tears of blood.
Eshu, confuser of men.
The owners of twenty slaves is sacrificing,
So that Eshu may not confuse him.
The owner of thirty ‘iwofa’ [pawns] is sacrificing,
So that Eshu may not confuse him.
Eshu confused the newly married wife.
When she stole the cowries from the sacred shrine of Oya
16
She said she had not realized
That taking two hundred cowries was stealing.
Eshu confused the head of the queen—
And she started to go naked.
Then Eshu beat her to make her cry.
Eshu, do not confuse me!
Eshu, do not confuse the load on my head …
17
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 have been visible at all.
Having thrown a stone yesterday—he kills a bird today. Lying down, his head hits the roof.
Standing up he cannot look into the cooking pot.
Eshu turns right into wrong, wrong into right. (Gbadamosi and Beier 1959: 15)
The obscure and poetic nature of these Yoruba hymns, concerned more with praise and allusive imagery than with intercession, can be further illustrated by another example taken from Verger’s great collection of Yoruba hymns (Verger 1957). This is the hymn to Shango, the powerful and violent god of thunder, praised in the poem under many different titles. Only about half of the full text is given:
Logun Leko ne me donne pas tort, que ma parole soit correcte
Lakuo peut brûler toutes les terres
Le tonnerre a brisé la maison de Are père du chasseur Mokin
La mort a amené l’éléphant dans la ville …
Mon Seigneur qui d’une seule pierre de foudre a tué six personnes
Logun Leko qui fait beaucoup de bruit sans rien faire
Très sale et très têtu, gifle le propriétaire de la maison et empoigne l’amala
Il le coupe en morceaux, il fait de la tête un remède
Il prend l’enfant têtu et l’attache comme un mouton
Ceint d’un tablier d’argent il entre dans la ville
Sur la tête d’un
ose
il monte et part
Il se bat comme la tornade dans la ville,
Il monte en spirale sur un arbre Odan et part
Lorsqu’il a tué quelqu’un il accroche sa jambe dans un arbre
arere
Amugbekun rit sans ouvrir la bouche
Baba Oje Ibadan pénetre dans la brousse et poursuit le danger
Mon seigneur qui coupe une tête comme un regime de noix de palme
Contrariété venue comme le signe Oyeku sur le plateau de Ifa
Mon seigneur qui fait lutter le mari et la femme ensemble …
Mon coeur n’est pas perdu, j’irai avec lui Shango
Roi qui prend celui-ci et qui prend celui-la
Il est difficile d’être en sa compagnie
Il dit que pour le propriétaire tout est fini
L’enfant mange tout ce qu’il trouve
Il rit lorsqu’il va chez Oshun
Il reste longtemps dans la maison d’Oya
Ni Ogun ni Shango ne revélent aucun secret
Revenant puissant pour lequel nous roulons le mortier
Léopard qui tue le mouton et se lave avec le sang
Il lorgne brutalement vers le menteur
Le Sorcier Lakin Sokun chauffe la maison avec son souffle (?)
Mon seigneur qui fait se sauver celui qui a raison
Le menteur se sauve avant même qu’il ne lui parle
Léopard père de Timi
Il attend ce qui nous a fait peur
Il les brise par centaines
Il verse tous les gens dans la forge
Mon seigneur, la forge devient le lit de tous les grands
Il se bat sans avoir tort
Il détruit la maison d’un autre et y met la sienne derrière
Il a battu deux cents personnes dans la forêt et brise la forêt autour avec son dos
Il y a beaucoup de debris au-dessus
Orisa
qui ayant déjà tué Efun Doyin, veut encore se battre
Lagun se ferme comme une calebasse d’huile
Il monte sur le mouton sans tomber
Résistant comme la racine de
tipe
Il monte sur le kapokier et le fait tomber déraciné
Il est sombre, calmement comme l’enfant d’une femme qui prépare l’indigo.
Seulement quelqu’un qui ne touche jamais terre
Il n’y a pas d’os qui ressemble aux dents
Balogun
Ede tue les gens
Asusu Masa est amer comme la feuille
d’egbesi
Il rit et ne crie pas
Il n’y a pas de danger pour moi en présence de Olukoso
Il va en dansant
gbangu
de Ibadan jusqu’e Oyo …
Père de honneur (nom de Shango)
Propriétaire talisman (nom de Shango)
Il grille les intestins et les mange
Même dans les jours de détresse il y a des récoltes et Shango mange de la pâte
Il tue le père, l’a mis sur l’enfant
Enlève son pénis et le met sur son pantalon
Sa poitrine est brûlante comme la brousse du pied du palmier
Entortillé comme la jambe de l’animal
semi
Il transforme le pilier d’une maison et le fait devenir immense comme Olokun
Si Olokun est immense Shango également est immense
Il fait brûler le fils de Olumon (Egba) dans le feu de Aragunan
Il écrase le talisman de mon chef de maison
Il prend auprès de ceux qui ne possèdent pas ce que nous lui souhaitons
Il est très sale comme Eshu et se tient, une jambe tendue et l’autre pliée
Éléphant qui marche avec dignité
Regardez l’éléphant lever aisement une patte guerrière, léopard père de Timi …
Il menace le male, il menace la femelle, il menace l’homme important, il menace le riche
L’indiscret qui veut découvrir le secret de Olukoso ne restera pas au monde
Celui qui respecte le secret, mon seigneur lui facilitera les choses
Il prend quelqu’un, il tue quelqu’un
Il danse avec precision en regardant vers le ciel à la dérobée
Aki Rabata danse avec les gens
Il saute hors de la maison si elle brule
Si la maison brûle il sort et rit après …
Si la pluie tombe il dit qu’il n’y a pas de feu
Si l’auto arrive que les gens accroupis se lèvent de la route
S’éloigner du serpent dont on n’a pas coupé la tête
Le feu brûle celui qu’il connait
La pluie mouillant l’ortie, éteint son feu
(Verger 1957: 342–8; 354–5)
The hymns of some other African peoples are very different from these elaborate praises of Yoruba gods. Praise may be replaced by an emphasis on prayer, supplication, or consideration of the relations of man to god(s). This seems to be true, for instance, of many of the hymns of the Dinka, a people of the Nilotic group famous for its special type of monotheism, emphasis on Spirit, and, at the same time, general lack of any developed priesthood. We can see the reflective nature of the first of two short hymns quoted by Lienhardt and, in the second, the tone of complaint and demand characteristic of Dinka hymns. In each ‘Divinity’ is approached directly and simply, and the poetic effectiveness is created partly through the use of vivid visual images from the everyday world:
Great
DENG
is near, and some say ‘far’
O Divinity
The creator is near, and some say ‘he has not reached us’ Do you not hear, O Divinity?
The black bull of the rain has been released from the moon’s byre.
18
Do you not hear, O Divinity?
19
I have been left in misery indeed, Divinity, help me!
Will you refuse [to help] the ants of this country?
20
When we have the clan-divinity
DENG
Our home is called ‘Lies and Confusion’.
21
What is all this for, O Divinity? Alas, I am your child. (Lienhardt, 1961: 45)
22
When we come to the hymns of the Bushmen of southern Africa we find the aspect of supplication taken still further. There are no priests among the Bushmen and, for certain northern groups at least, invocations to their gods are said to take place spontaneously when the thought comes to them.
23
Consonant with the continual difficulties and scarcities of Bushman life, the topics of their invocations are the day-to-day material needs with which they are preoccupied: