Letting Go of October
With my longest newsletter issue yet...
Dear Friends,
Over the last couple of months, I have immersed myself in Lorraine Anderson's Sisters of the Earth as the focus of my morning meditations. This magnificent book of nature-focused prose and poetry written exclusively by women is a bible, a hymnbook, a funeral program, a birthday invitation, a biography, an autobiography, and an album of vividly described images all focused on the Earth, Our Mother, and our relationship with Her. Threaded through its pages is an urgent call for us to seek out and return to ways of living which actively recognize and honor the understanding that our survival as humans is inseparable from the Earth’s.
The gorgeously written reflections got me thinking about how African people have expressed their relationship with the natural world in words. I set out to find poems by Africans, historical or contemporary, whose focus is the natural world. This is by no means an exhaustive list and if you have any to share, drop them in the comments. Wouldn’t it be lovely to have a whole repository of these?
(I resisted the urge to categorize these by people or country. Think of them as a forest, randomly arranged, with clusters of similar plants.)
1. In Praise of Sorghum – A Kiga (Rwanda, Uganda) farmers song
2. Shava Museyamwa and Thank You, Shava – Two Shona (Zimbabwe) clan praise poem which center the Eland totem
3. Zebra – A beautiful Shona (Zimbabwe) poem celebrating the Zebra totem
4. The Bahima Women Praise Their Cattle – A joyful Bahima (Uganda) poem celebrating their cows by name
5. Buffalo – A Yorùbá (Nigeria) hunter poem (Ìjálá) celebrating the fierce buffalo
6. Hunter’s Salutes – Five more Ìjálá celebrating the lion, the chimpanzee, the red-flanked duiker, the colobus monkey and the antelope
7. In Praise of the Farmer – An Igbo (Nigeria) poem praising the hardworking farmer
8. Poor Fowl – A satirical Ashanti (Ghana) poem sympathizing with sacrificial chickens
9. Prayer for Rain – A Sena (Malawi) prayer to Chauta (God) for rain
10. Prayer to Ruwa – A Chaga (Tanzania) prayer to Ruwa (God who is also the Sun)
11. The Path and the River – An Ashanti (Ghana) poem to Tano the River God
12. Drum Address to the Earth Spirit – An Ashanti (Ghana) poem to Asaase Yaa, the Earth Spirit
13. San Hunter Prayer – A San (southern Africa) hunter prays to the moon for help
14. Prayer to the Young Moon – Another San hunter prayer to the moon
15. Ọ̀ṣun, The River Goddess – Invocation to the Yorùbá Goddess of Rivers
16. Eye of a Calf – A Kiga Love poem which draws on imagery from nature
17. Song of the Coco-Palm – A Swahili (East Africa) poem in praise of the coconut palm
18. The Small Bird – An Igbo song about having reverence for all life
19. Three Birds – A Yorùbá song praising the beauty of birds
20. Five Creatures – A funny Yorùbá Ìjálá
21. Where the Blue-Grey Bulls are Grazing – A Kipsigi poem celebrating the beauty of the natural landscape
22. To Palm wine – A funny Yorùbá song in praise of palm wine
23. To Palm Wine (A Response) – A response to the above poem from Ashanti poet Adjei Agyei-Baah
24. On Chewing Khat – A sober Somali reflection on the benefits and risks of chewing Khat (also qat or qaat) a stimulant plant
25. The Twilight Song of the Honeybird – A Gikuyu (Kenya) herdsboy song which connects all aspects of his life
26. The Honeybird – A Hurutshe (South Africa) poem to the honeybird
27. The Incompetent Hunter – A Yorùbá Ìjálá addressed to the guinea fowl in which the hunter makes fun of himself
28. At the New Moon – A Nandi (Kenya) children’s song welcoming the New Moon
29. Bee – A Swahili poem from Zanzibar. I learned something new from this one! Sweetness can come from unexpected places
30. The Boast of the Good Farmer – A Shona farmer expresses his pride and contentment
31. Cattle Songs – The Maasai looooove their cattle!
32. Elephant – A Yorùbá Ìjálá addressed to the Elephant. This is one of the best known Ìjálás
33. Re-Birth – A San prayer to the moon
34. Crocodile – A Sotho (Lesotho) praise poem to the crocodile
35. Hyena – A Sotho praise poem to the Hyena
36. Hyena – A Yorùbá Ìjálá addressed to the Hyena
37. Hunting Song – A Shona hunter’s song in which they name the places where they find game
38. Hunting Song – A Kisukuma (Tanzania) hunter’s song in which he reflects on his shared fate with his prey
39. Baboon – A funny Yorùbá Ìjálá addressed to the Baboon
40. Hold Back the Sun – An Ashanti women’s farming song
41. Farming Song – An Embu (Kenya) women’s farming song
42. Cassava – A Yorùbá Ìjálá addressed not to an animal but to a plant!
43. Hunter’s Prayer – An Acoli (Uganda) hunter’s prayer
44. The Cattle Killing – A Xhosa (South Africa) poem about the tragic cattle killings of 1857
45. The Farmer in Chaha Song – A praise songs for farmers (and ridicule of lazy people) in the Chaha language of the Gurage (Ethiopia)
A common assumption is that if a world view is earth-based, it automatically comes with deep respect and reverence for nature. This is by and large true. In these 45 poems, the different African peoples from whom they come skillfully, humorously and reverently demonstrate a deep knowledge, enjoyment and keen understanding of the world they share with plants and animals. However, in a world driven by human ignorance, irrationality, and exploitative consumerism to which culture and spirituality are not immune, where plants like the beloved Palo Santo were once listed as “in critical danger” due to over harvesting, and animals can be hunted into extinction, we shouldn’t take things for granted. As the Xhosa cattle killing poem (#44) demonstrates, earth-based worldviews are not immune from the vagaries of human behavior.
Complement these poems with these MA Podcast Episodes:
"Ukuta Yuva" i.e. To Praise the Sun – A Nyaturu (Tanzania) prayer which pays homage to the goodness of the Creator as perceived through the Sun (Yuva), the Moon (Mweri), and the stars, more precisely the rain-bringing Pleiades (Kirimia).
Across African Skies Part 1 – The mythology, folklore and symbolism of the sun and moon among different African peoples
Across African Skies Part 2 - The mythology, folklore and symbolism of the stars among different African peoples
I’m still neck deep in research and writing so I will keep “seeing” you all on Sundays for the MA Podcast. If you have time on Thursday November 30th, however, stop by The College of Psychic Studies for my talk “The Crab Walks, The Gods Talk: Divination in African Societies.”
Be well,
Helen