Oral Literature in Africa (32 page)

You have created me and given me power to walk about and hunt. Why do you lead me in the wrong way so that I find no animals?
²⁴

In these examples, often characterized by a mixture of mild imprecation and pleading, the prayer is more marked than the praise or worship often associated with ‘hymns’. The same emphasis on praying and the demand for daily needs also comes out in the prayers of some southern Bushman groups, where there is a conventional form into which such prayers are thrown. Each poem, or each of its verses, opens with an invocation to the moon, sun, or stars: ‘Ho Moon lying there’ or ‘O Star coming there’, and so on. This is followed by a prayer for life (that is, a prayer for food), made the more intense by the repetition and parallelism of the expression:

Ho Moon lying there,

Let me early tomorrow see an ostrich,

As the ostrich sits on the eggs,

Let me whisk out the yolk

With a gemsbok tail hair (brush)

Which sits together upon a little stick

Upon which the gemsbok tail sits.

(Bleek 1929: 306)

A similar pattern can be seen in the famous ‘Prayer to the young moon’:

Young Moon!

Hail, Young Moon!

Hail, hail,

Young Moon!

Young Moon! speak to me!

Hail, hail,

Young Moon! Tell me of something.

Hail, hail!

When the sun rises,

Thou must speak to me,

That I may eat something.

Thou must speak to me about a little thing,

That I may eat.

Hail, hail,

Young Moon!

(Bleek and Lloyd 1911: 415)

The same emphasis on intercession is evident in some of the songs associated with rain ceremonies in the central African area. Here, however, the musical and dramatic aspects are more pronounced than in Bushman prayers. As with many antiphonal songs, the refrain is assigned to a chorus while the verses are extemporized by a soloist according to a conventional pattern—a marked contrast to the lengthy and specialist hymns to West African deities. This can be illustrated from a Ndau rain song from Portuguese East Africa, a song in which the antiphonal form is expressively used to indicate the personal plight of both singer and chorus:

Thunder-of-the-East, we’re dying,

E we iye yo we

And the race will die this season!

E we iye yo we

O ye Highland folk, we perish!

E we iye yo we

O ye Sea-Side folk, we’re dying!

E we iye yo we

Ye Mamboni folk, we perish!

E we iye yo we

Ye Mashangna folk we’re dying:

E we iye yo we

Ye Nyalinge folk, we perish!

E we iye yo we

Thunder-of-the-East, we’re dying!

E we iye yo we
.

(Curtis 1920: 30)

It is sometimes supposed that one of the most common forms of conventional utterance in non-literate society is the spell or incantation—a verse or formula believed to be magically effective in manipulating people or things. In fact the evidence from Africa does not seem to suggest that this is often a particularly significant form of literature. It is true that magical incantations of a kind do occur—perhaps particularly in the areas most influenced by Islam—and in some societies are distinguished by a special term from other religious poetry such as hymns or prayers.
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But even in these cases this form does not seem to be developed as a lengthy and specialized form in its own right as it is, for instance, in Melanesia.
²⁶
Even among a people like the Azande who are so famous for their emphasis on magic and on witchcraft, verse incantations or spells do not seem to be highly developed: invocation to the poison oracle, for instance, appears to be in a prose form which, though marked by its own conventionally elliptical phraseology, is apparently not a set word-perfect formula. And the songs sung at Zande ‘witch-doctors’ seances’, where we might expect to find such incantations, are in fact short and relatively simple (like, for instance, ‘Brush away tears oo eee, we will sit down with her and brush away tears’);
²⁷
they deal with a variety of social events unrelated to magic, just as do songs sung at dances or beer-parties, and they are performed in the normal antiphonal form with leader and chorus.
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A further general point is that even where there is some element of what might be termed ‘magic’, this does not necessarily lead to a definite type of ‘magical incantation’. Just as the previously assumed distinction between ‘magic’ and ‘religion’ is now questioned by many students of African beliefs
and practices, so too it emerges that it is often not feasible to differentiate a clear-cut category of ‘magical’ incantations, spells, and charms as distinct from ‘religious’ poetry involving prayer, praise, invocation, or ritual announcement.

The following two examples may help to illustrate this point. Both are characterized by the kind of rhythmic and expressive diction, further brought out by the use of repetition, that in fact appears in many forms of literature but is often thought to be particularly typical of ‘magical’ utterances. The first is taken from the Songhai, a people, long in contact with Islam, who do distinguish between religious praises and magical formula. It is a spell used in hunting magic—and yet even here there is mention of God and of his messenger and prophet, Ndebi:

Je parle avec
Ndebi
.

Ndebi
n’a qu’à parler avec Dieu

Les hommes d’avant ont donné à
Saley
.

Saley
a donné à son petit frère.

Ndebi,
laisse-moi passer par le trou avec mes captifs et mon poison.

Ndebi,
ouvre le trou et referme le trou.

Ndebi,
ferme le trou aux
Zin
.

Ndebi,
ferme le trou au lion méchant.

Ndebi,
ferme le trou à la hyène méchante.

Ndebi,
ferme le trou aux antilopes méchantes.

Ndebi,
ferme le trou aux êtres méchants.

Ndebi,
ferme le trou aux langues méchantes.

Ndebi,
ferme le trou aux frères méchants.
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In the second example, from the Kongo, the ancestors are being thanked for their help in curing a patient, and are being ritually shown the animals brought for a feast in their honour; these animals are to be in good condition and not attacked by hostile forces:

May the leopard coming from the forest Have his teeth on edge for these animals.

May the weasel coming from the forest

Be unable to take these fowls.

May the witch who twists his belongings,

Fail to fascinate our goats.

May the thief on the look-out

Sprain his feet in his course.

Let all these animals prosper

And multiply,

Then the feast will be beautiful.

So far, this might seem to accord with the picture of a typical ‘magic incantation’; but the speaker continues, addressing the ancestors in whose honour the whole is uttered:

I have held out my hands to you (in prayer),

And he who holds out his hands dies not. I have shown you the animals of the feast,

And I have brought you no other presents, Except palmwine,

That you may favour the procreation of (human) wealth.

And here are the kola nuts I brought for you.
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I am not intending to suggest that references to personal supernatural beings (such as deities or ancestors)
always
appear in such utterances, but that they appear frequently enough to make a general distinction between ‘magical charms’ and hymns or prayers a difficult one to draw. As a result it is not easy to find many specialized instances of purely ‘magical’ verses. It seems that the popular picture of all-important and word-perfect magical formulas, intended to manipulate impersonally through the force of the words alone, is one that does not often have a real counterpart in any developed or specialized form in subsaharan Africa.

Another common supposition is that with the advent of Christianity and its associated literate traditions, the importance of
oral
religious utterances will necessarily diminish. The contrary, however, would seem to be true. It is precisely in the religious sphere that there has been a marked development of oral forms in lyrics, prayers, and testimonies, each with its own conventions and techniques. This goes hand in hand with the great proliferation of native Christian churches and other separatist religious movements that is so well known a feature of contemporary Africa.

Sometimes these utterances are subsequently reduced to writing or even make an early appearance in written form: but even in these cases their spread and significance among their largely non-literate patrons is often primarily oral. Instances could be drawn from Mau Mau hymns, from the ‘very Zulu’ modern hymns of the Church of Nazareth, and from testimonies in various separatist churches in South Africa, which, even when ‘spontaneous’, have their own conventions and appear as rhythmic and liturgical chants.
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One example that has been described
is the lyric in the Fante Methodist Church in Ghana,
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and I will discuss this briefly here.

The Methodist Church in Ghana is Western in organization, worship, and ethos. Nevertheless, certain aspects have been developed which appeal particularly to non-literate members, above all the Fante lyric which appears so often in services. There are two main types. In one, words and music are more or less fixed, though there may be minor variations by the congregations who actually sing them. The second type falls into the form of an individual recitative accompanied by a relatively fixed chorus. It is this second form that gives scope to the highest degree of improvisation. Though the lyrics sometimes become stereotyped in context, a competent singer can improvise. He may wind his theme, for instance, round some reference that has struck him in the sermon just delivered or in a prayer or reading. Sometimes he will even break into the sermon with a lyric which is then taken up by others present. In a way typical of much oral literature, the rest of the congregation also play their part, for they sing the responses in chorus and are quick to anticipate what is required. Not all members of a church are themselves competent lyric singers.

It is common for there to be one or two individuals in the congregation, usually from among the older men and women, who are recognized as song leaders. A good singer must possess two qualities: an extensive repertoire of the more familiar lyrics, and a capacity to improvise successfully within the canons of accepted musical and verbal styles. He thus requires poetic and musical ability as well as considerable verbal skill. Such lyrics are important devotionally to the non-literate Fante Methodists and play a significant part in their religious services. Williamson considers them as ‘simple and sincere expressions of religious belief and experience’ and contrasts this with the attitude to Western hymns which, even in translation, are stilted and un-Fante (Williamson 1958: 127).

The background to these modern lyrics lies not in the specialist hymns to deities but rather in certain lyric forms of the oral Akan tradition, particularly those associated with the
asafo
military companies, with
the female
mmobome
and
asrayere
songs, and perhaps with the
adenkum
(calabash) music associated with older rituals. They also recall the practice in traditional Fante stories of the narration (like the sermon) being interrupted by a song which acts both as diversion and as commentary. As with the Methodist lyrics, such songs appear either in regular metrical form or as recitative with response from the audience. The lyrical aspect of the church songs comes out particularly in the frequent use of apostrophe and affirmation linked with the idea of a personal proclamation or recital. Most of the lyrics are brief and fairly stereotyped in content, as in the following example of one of the relatively fixed forms. The image of a shower of blessing suggested in the second line of the Fante text is a traditional one:

Open the windows of heaven, Give us thy blessing! Open the windows of heaven, Give us thy blessing!

Our Father,
Onyame
[God]!

Sweet Father of us, the Church membership.

Open the windows of heaven,

Give us thy blessing.

(Williamson 1958: 129)

Although such lyrics are short and simple and tend to be despised by literate church members, they nevertheless represent a vigorous oral tradition, and one that has parallels elsewhere. It is one, furthermore, that is now gaining wider currency in a series of voluntary associations outside the church as well as through the increasing emphasis on such lyrics in broadcasts by Radio Ghana. Altogether, this kind of development is one likely to prove a fruitful field in the future study of oral literature.

III

Mantic poetry represents a different type of religious literature. It can take several forms. One consists of the utterances of mediums believed by themselves and/or others to be possessed by some spirit. When oracular utterances take the from of poetry, they have their own conventions. However, although possibly widespread in Africa, there have been few detailed studies of them,
³³
perhaps because they tend to be obscurely expressed in oracular language (sometimes even in a special language
of their own) or in a fragmentary or repetitive form. On the other hand the poems that accompany certain divining procedures are of a more systematized and specialized type and, accordingly, have been more accessible to collectors. This type of mantic poetry tends to be highly conventional, with little emphasis on the individual creativity of the performer; a common pattern is for it to be the preserve of specialist diviners who have undergone training and/or special initiation to master the techniques of divination and its interpretation, as well as to develop the ability to recite the requisite poetry. And, finally, there are combinations of these two types, when both possession and more conventional forms of divination are involved.
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