Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part I of a two part series on the esteemed Mauritanian musician Hamadi Ould Nana.
Part I showcases a video of Hamadi Ould Nana. Part I also provides information about the Mauritanian music and the guetna (harvest season) in Mauritania. The word "guetna" happened to be included in the summary to that showcased video.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/03/hamadi-ould-nana-and-meaning-of-word.html for Part II of this series. Part II showcases another video of Hamadi Ould Nana and provides information about the word "mahboula" that happened to be included in the title of that showcased video.
The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Hamadi Ould Nana for his musical legacy. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this video on YouTube.
****
EXCERPT FROM A POST ABOUT MAURITANIAN MUSIC WHICH MENTIONS HAMADI OULD NANA
From http://blogs.voanews.com/music-time-in-africa/2008/01/23/the-music-of-mauritania-part-one/
The music of Mauritania, Part One. by Matthew Lavoie, Posted January 23rd, 2008
"The Islamic Republic of Mauritania is where West Africa and the Maghreb meet- a huge, sparsely populated, country-stretching between Morocco and Senegal, Mali and the Atlantic ocean. The country’s name comes from its dominant ethnic group, the Moors (Maures in French), and it is their nomadic traditions and culture that give Mauritania its unique character. The Moors, or Beydane (as they call themselves), are very proud of their music. One of the country’s great music aficionados used to tell me, “music is the only thing we have ever taken the time to develop”
Nouakchott, the capital city, is home to the majority of the country’s most talented musicians. Moorish music can be roughly divided into ‘folk’ music and ‘classical’ music; the first category consists of lullabies, work songs, game songs, courting songs, shepherd songs, and religious praise ‘songs’, and the second the music of the Iggawen, or griots. Mauritania has no music industry; there are no nightclubs or record labels, there are no publications devoted to music, Moorish musicians rarely give public ‘concerts’, and the first professional studio in the country opened in 2003. The iggawen, much as they did a century ago, perform primarily at weddings and private recitals. And although (like Wolof, Manding, Pulaar, and Soninke griots) they often sing praise songs, they are above all appreciated for the aesthetic refinement of their poetic and musical skills.
One of the easiest points of entry is Jakwar, a style of music that was created in 1976 by Jheich ould Abba, a blind musician from Atar, in Northern Mauritania. Named after the fast French fighter jets that often flew over northern Mauritania during the Saharan war, Jakwar is dance music. Jheich amplified his tidinit (the traditional lute) and brought the rhythmic drive of folk music to classical Moorish melodies. This next track (like virtually all recordings available in Mauritania) is a cassette-dub of a private recording that was sponsored by one of Jheich’s patrons. The quality leaves much to be desired but his music comes through. Stick with it.
Today, Jheich’s musical legacy is kept alive by his son Idoumou ould Jheich ould Abba. He is the only one of his Jheich’s five sons to have learned the tidinit, and is today one of Nouakchott’s most solicited musicians.
It is very difficult to capture the power of Jakwar on tape. This music requires the active participation of the public. At a typical wedding, as soon as Idoumou starts to play, the women in the crowd start clapping interlocking cross-rhythms, and the louder they clap, the harder Idoumou plays. As the groove picks up steam the largely female crowd-which is arranged in an oval around an open dance space, with Idoumou at one end of the oval-starts to sway, and then rock, hard. One at a time individual dancers will jump into the oval, cover their faces with their veils, and undulate their shoulders to the beat...
The next big change in Mauritanian music came when iggawen started playing Jakwar on the electric guitar. Hammadi ould Nana was the first to take the leap. Inspired by Jakwar’s rhythmic drive, Hammadi realized that the sonic qualities of the electric guitar (sustain, controlled distortion) made it the ideal instrument for Jakwar music."...
-snip-
That post includes sound files of featured musicians/singers including Hammadi ould Nana.
****
SHOWCASE EXAMPLE: Hamadi Ould Nana.flv
FRANCEDOCS, Uploaded on Oct 13, 2011
Le célèbre chanteur de Tidjikja, Hamadi Ould Nana nous offre un moment priviligié chez lui pendant la guetna.
-snip-
Google translate from French to English -The famous singer [from] Tidjikja, Hamadi Ould Nana offers us a privileged moment with him during guetna.
-snip-
The word "singer" here may mean "musician". Hamadi Ould Nana doesn't sing in this video or in the video showcased in Part II. Please add links to other videos or sound files of Hamadi Ould Nana that you are aware of. Thanks!
I didn't know what the word "guetna" meant. The information that I found about that word is included in the following section of this post.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT MAURITANIA'S GUETNA
From http://www.easyvoyage.co.uk/mauritania/the-guetna-2382 The Guetna - Mauritania
By Francesca Long Francesca Long
"Traditions
Discover The Guetna
The date harvest season runs from the second half of June to the end of August, during the hot summer days. It is called the Guetna season. The population abandon the towns to go to the oasis. There, the owners of date palms sell branches which are literally collapsing under the weight of the dates, and buyers can keep the dates until the end of the season. During the Guetna season, a holiday atmosphere reigns over the palm groves. Spit-roast lamb barbecues are organized, tea flows like water and dates are picked and eaten in their thousands. To preserve the fruit, it has to be left to dry in tikits - local huts made with palm branches or camel grass. Mauritanians eat dates all year long, particularly before meals."
****
From http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/08/mauritanias-date-palms-cultural-heritage-and-means-of-survival/
Mauritania’s Date Palms, Cultural Heritage and Means of Survival By Mohamed Abderrahmane
"NOUAKCHOTT, Aug 21 2012 (IPS) - “The palm tree is a means of survival,” said Tahya Mint Mohamed, a 44-year-old Mauritanian farmer and mother of three children. “We eat its dates; we make mats, beds and chairs from palms; the leaves are also used to make baskets and to feed our livestock.”
Mint Mohamed is the regional president of the associations for participatory management of oases in the Two Hodhs region of southwestern Mauritania (hodh means “basin” in Arabic) – an unusual position for a woman to hold in a traditionally male-dominated activity.
She was delighted to take IPS on a tour of her palm plantation, which is alive with activity during the date harvesting period between June and August...
Mauritania has over 10,000 productive hectares of date palms, taking into account mature, productive palms as well as young trees that have not yet begun to bear fruit, and male palms – essential for pollination – according to Mohamed Ould Ahmed Banane, who oversees monitoring and evaluation for the Oases Sustainable Development Programme (PDDO).
Banane said nearly 20,000 people across the country depend on dates for their livelihood in five oasis regions: Adrar in the north, Tagant in the Centre, and Assaba and the two Hodhs in the southeast.
He estimates Mauritania’s annual production of dates at 60,000 tonnes, to which is added a small amount of imports – 1,000 tonnes from Algeria and 500 tonnes from Tunisia. Around 60 percent of dates are eaten between June and August, during the Guetna (the Arabic name for the season when dates are harvested)*. The rest is dried for consumption throughout the year.”...…
-snip-
Italics added by me to highlight that sentence.
****
From http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1128013 Mauritania Dates
Updated October 28, 2002·12:00 AM ET, Published August 27, 2001·12:00 AM ET
“Ivan Watson reports many people in the Sahara desert country of Mauritania have been on vacation for much of the past month. They're celebrating "Guetna," the annual harvest of the dates.”
****
This concludes Part I of this series.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Showing posts with label African harvest festivals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label African harvest festivals. Show all posts
Friday, March 11, 2016
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Yoruba Gelede Masquerade (information & four video examples)
Edited by Azizi Powell
This post provides information about the Yoruba Gelede masquerade which is performed in Benin, Nigeria, and Togo (West Africa). This post also showcases four videos of this masquerade.
The content of this post is presented for cultural, religious, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are featured in this post. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these examples on YouTube.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT GELEDE MASQUERADE
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelede
"The Gelede spectacle of the Yoruba is a public display by colorful masks which combines art and ritual dance to amuse, educate and inspire worship.[1] Gelede celebrates “Mothers” (awon iya wa), a group that includes female ancestors and deities as well as the elderly women of the community, and the power and spiritual capacity these women have in society. However, this power may also be destructive and take the form of witchcraft; therefore, Gelede serves the function of appeasing this power, as well.[2]...
Gelede Spectacle
Although Gelede ceremony may be staged at any time of the year (to better the lot of an individual, to cleanse the society of pestilence, to induce rain, to enrich human fertility, to enlist the support of supernatural forces and the "powerful mothers" in wartime, and to honor the dead), the most elaborate performance occurs during the annual festival.
Once the exact dates of the festival are fixed, usually through divination, the Iyalase notifies the head of the community and the important chiefs. Messages then go out to all members of the Gelede society outside the town or working far away to return home for the celebration.
The festival begins with an all-night concert called efe, which features the Efe male mask, who uses satire to entertain and educate. Given the concern of the Gelede society with peace and social stability, it is not surprising that didactic themes recur in efe songs.
After the efe dance, most of the attendees spend the morning sleeping in preparation for the afternoon dance, which takes place in the marketplace and features pairs of male dancers who perform to fast-paced music with a vigorous beat.
The Gelede ceremony involves carefully choreographed dance, singing and music, and especially drumming. The performances are given by men, wearing masks that feature sculpted images of scenes including animals and people or sewing machines and drums. The pairs of men masquerade as women to amuse, please and placate the mothers who are considered very powerful, and who may use their powers for good or destructive purposes. These powers are especially linked to childbirth. The abilities they possess may be activated either consciously or unconsciously.[3]"...
****
From http://kwekudee-tripdownmemorylane.blogspot.com/2014/08/egbado-yewa-people-artisan-textile.html EGBADO (YEWA) PEOPLE: ARTISAN TEXTILE PROCESSING YORUBA SUB-GROUP KNOWN FOR THEIR MYSTICAL GELEDE MASQUERADE AND SECRET SOCIETY , Wednesday, August 27, 2014
"The Egbado people also now known as Yewa, are amalgamated agriculturalists and artisan textile processing Yoruboid-speaking people that forms a sub-set of the Larger Yoruba ethnic group, inhabiting the eastern area of Ogun West Senatorial District, Ogun State, in south-west Nigeria, West Africa. In 1995, the Egbado people changed their name to the Yewa, which is the name of the River Yewa that passes through their land....
...[Information about Egbado [Yewa] masquerade] Gelede pays homage to the spiritual powers of women, especially elderly women known affectionately as "our mothers," awon iya wa. The powers possessed by such women, comparable to those of the gods, spirits, or ancestors, may be used for the benefit or the destruction of society. When manifesting their destructive dimension such elderly women are termed aje ("witches"). If angered, they can bring down individuals and entire communities...
The Egbado are known for developing a popular style of music, called Bolojo, in the 1970s. Their population level is uncertain, but may be around 500,000.
...The afternoon after Efe night is reserved for the performance of an elaborate series of Gelede maskers whose images and actions embellish and intensify reality to create exaggerated visions of maleness and femaleness and specific social groups and roles. The maskers, all males, impersonate both men and women. The first to appear are the youngest dancers, enthusiastically encouraged by friends and relatives who gather around them as they attempt their first steps to the intricate, changing rhythms of the drummers. Their dance instructors in the Gelede society follow closely, giving advice and encouragement during the performance.
...Located between the Weme River in the Republic of Benin (RPB) and the Ogun River in southwestern Nigeria, western Yoruba-speaking peoples (Ketu, Egbado, Ohori, and Anago) are renowned for an elaborate masked performance tradition known as Gelede. The Ketu-Yoruba people are credited with the invention of Gelede sometime in the latter part of the eighteenth century according to oral traditions throughout the region. A popular Yoruba saying proclaims, oju to ba ri Gelede ti de opin iran ("The eyes that have seen Gelede, have seen the ultimate spectacle!"). Gelede's affective power and impact comes from its multi-media format in which the arts of song, dance, costume and music combine to create moving artistic experiences...
[A description of Gelede mask]Gelede of porcupine, Egbado-Yoruba, Nigeria, 1978. Photo by H.J. Drewal and M.T. Drewal. Submitted by Henry Drewal.
"Animals in other Gelede masks may be used for satiric purposes to criticize antisocial actions or attributes. Porcupines, because of their voracious appetites and slow, sluggish movement, are sometimes a metaphor for gluttonous or selfish persons. A headdress depicting a plump porcupine devouring a corncob conveys its greed and thus warns/reminds the audience about proper social behavior."
-snip-
WARNING: The comment section of that informative blog post about the Egbado Yoruba culture contains profanity and sexually explicit spam.
-snip-
Additional information about Gelede is found in the video summaries that are found below.
****
SHOWCASE EXAMPLES
These examples are given in chronological order according to their publishing dates on YouTube with the oldest dated example given first.
Example #1: Gelede Preview - www.Alawoye.com
Awo Ifálojú, Uploaded on Mar 4, 2008
This is a short video preview of Gelede festivals held at certain select locations of Yoruba land, this comprises the largest spectacle of Gelede across Yoruba land and Africa, held at the UNESCO Gelede House in northern Rep. of Benin,...
****
Example #2: The Oral Heritage of Gelede
UNESCO, Uploaded on Sep 26, 2009
UNESCO: Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity - 2008
URL: http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/RL/...
Description: The Gelede is performed by the Yoruba-Nago community that is spread over Benin, Nigeria and Togo. For more than a century, this ceremony has been performed to pay tribute to the primordial mother Iyà Nlà and to the role women play in the process of social organization and development of Yoruba society.
The Gelede takes place every year after the harvests, at important events and during drought or epidemics and is characterized by carved masks, dances and chants, sung in the Yoruba language and retracing the history and myths of the Yoruba-Nago people.
The ceremony usually takes place at night on a public square and the dancers prepare in a nearby house. The singers and the drummers are the first to appear. They are accompanied by an orchestra and followed by the masked dancers wearing splendid costumes. There is a great deal of preparatory craftwork involved, especially mask carving and costume making. The performances convey an oral heritage that blends epic and lyric verses, which employ a good deal of irony and mockery, supported by satirical masks. Figures of animals are often used, such as the serpent, a symbol of power, or the bird, the messenger of the mothers.
The community is divided into groups of men and women led by a male and a female head. It is the only known masked society, which is also governed by women. Although the Gelede has nowadays adapted to a more patriarchal society, the oral heritage and dances can be considered as a testimony of the former matriarchal order.
Technical development is resulting in a gradual loss of traditional know-how, and tourism is jeopardizing the Gelede by turning it into a folklore product. Nevertheless, the Gelede community shows great awareness of the value of their intangible heritage, which is reflected in the efforts put into the preparation work and in the growing number of participants.
Country(ies): Benin; Nigeria; Togo
-snip-
This video summary is reformatted to enhance reading clarity.
****
Example #3: Behind the mask of a West African tradition
AFP news agency, Uploaded on Oct 30, 2009
For more than 100 years, the Yoruba and Nago peoples of West Africa have performed the gelede, a masked song and dance ceremony recognised by UNESCO as a masterpiece of oral cultural heritage. It's performed to mark major events -- in particular the annual harvest --but also plays an important role in society. Duration: 02:18.
****
Example #4: Gelede at SICA 2011
Jelili Atiku, Published on Aug 23, 2012
The poem by M.O. Okogie in 1965, aptly describes GELEDE (or EFE) DANCE.
Okogie writes:
Gelede is another masquerade of repute
Here in the western Coast of the Bight of Benin:
He is grotesque in shape and he is less fleet of foot
He is cumbersome, ugly, and hefty, within.
There he goes in the street and is followed by children:
He is waving on hand his horse tail in response
To the adulations and praises of women
Whom he eyes with his head one way bent in askance.
He is out on the day after his midnight play:
For donations he dances and shakes his jingling feet:
He is bugbear to those at some distance away
Who are not his men but commoners of the street.
There are singers of women and drummers of men
When he dances at night in the Gelede way.
It is good to see him, as dancers were often
Beat the ground to the music and twist in the play.
Note:
The poem was cited in: Taiwo, O. (1965)(Ed), "Collected Poems for Secondary Schools-Book", (Revised Edition), Macmillan Education Limited, London, page 13.
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This post provides information about the Yoruba Gelede masquerade which is performed in Benin, Nigeria, and Togo (West Africa). This post also showcases four videos of this masquerade.
The content of this post is presented for cultural, religious, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are featured in this post. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these examples on YouTube.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT GELEDE MASQUERADE
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelede
"The Gelede spectacle of the Yoruba is a public display by colorful masks which combines art and ritual dance to amuse, educate and inspire worship.[1] Gelede celebrates “Mothers” (awon iya wa), a group that includes female ancestors and deities as well as the elderly women of the community, and the power and spiritual capacity these women have in society. However, this power may also be destructive and take the form of witchcraft; therefore, Gelede serves the function of appeasing this power, as well.[2]...
Gelede Spectacle
Although Gelede ceremony may be staged at any time of the year (to better the lot of an individual, to cleanse the society of pestilence, to induce rain, to enrich human fertility, to enlist the support of supernatural forces and the "powerful mothers" in wartime, and to honor the dead), the most elaborate performance occurs during the annual festival.
Once the exact dates of the festival are fixed, usually through divination, the Iyalase notifies the head of the community and the important chiefs. Messages then go out to all members of the Gelede society outside the town or working far away to return home for the celebration.
The festival begins with an all-night concert called efe, which features the Efe male mask, who uses satire to entertain and educate. Given the concern of the Gelede society with peace and social stability, it is not surprising that didactic themes recur in efe songs.
After the efe dance, most of the attendees spend the morning sleeping in preparation for the afternoon dance, which takes place in the marketplace and features pairs of male dancers who perform to fast-paced music with a vigorous beat.
The Gelede ceremony involves carefully choreographed dance, singing and music, and especially drumming. The performances are given by men, wearing masks that feature sculpted images of scenes including animals and people or sewing machines and drums. The pairs of men masquerade as women to amuse, please and placate the mothers who are considered very powerful, and who may use their powers for good or destructive purposes. These powers are especially linked to childbirth. The abilities they possess may be activated either consciously or unconsciously.[3]"...
****
From http://kwekudee-tripdownmemorylane.blogspot.com/2014/08/egbado-yewa-people-artisan-textile.html EGBADO (YEWA) PEOPLE: ARTISAN TEXTILE PROCESSING YORUBA SUB-GROUP KNOWN FOR THEIR MYSTICAL GELEDE MASQUERADE AND SECRET SOCIETY , Wednesday, August 27, 2014
"The Egbado people also now known as Yewa, are amalgamated agriculturalists and artisan textile processing Yoruboid-speaking people that forms a sub-set of the Larger Yoruba ethnic group, inhabiting the eastern area of Ogun West Senatorial District, Ogun State, in south-west Nigeria, West Africa. In 1995, the Egbado people changed their name to the Yewa, which is the name of the River Yewa that passes through their land....
...[Information about Egbado [Yewa] masquerade] Gelede pays homage to the spiritual powers of women, especially elderly women known affectionately as "our mothers," awon iya wa. The powers possessed by such women, comparable to those of the gods, spirits, or ancestors, may be used for the benefit or the destruction of society. When manifesting their destructive dimension such elderly women are termed aje ("witches"). If angered, they can bring down individuals and entire communities...
The Egbado are known for developing a popular style of music, called Bolojo, in the 1970s. Their population level is uncertain, but may be around 500,000.
...The afternoon after Efe night is reserved for the performance of an elaborate series of Gelede maskers whose images and actions embellish and intensify reality to create exaggerated visions of maleness and femaleness and specific social groups and roles. The maskers, all males, impersonate both men and women. The first to appear are the youngest dancers, enthusiastically encouraged by friends and relatives who gather around them as they attempt their first steps to the intricate, changing rhythms of the drummers. Their dance instructors in the Gelede society follow closely, giving advice and encouragement during the performance.
...Located between the Weme River in the Republic of Benin (RPB) and the Ogun River in southwestern Nigeria, western Yoruba-speaking peoples (Ketu, Egbado, Ohori, and Anago) are renowned for an elaborate masked performance tradition known as Gelede. The Ketu-Yoruba people are credited with the invention of Gelede sometime in the latter part of the eighteenth century according to oral traditions throughout the region. A popular Yoruba saying proclaims, oju to ba ri Gelede ti de opin iran ("The eyes that have seen Gelede, have seen the ultimate spectacle!"). Gelede's affective power and impact comes from its multi-media format in which the arts of song, dance, costume and music combine to create moving artistic experiences...
[A description of Gelede mask]Gelede of porcupine, Egbado-Yoruba, Nigeria, 1978. Photo by H.J. Drewal and M.T. Drewal. Submitted by Henry Drewal.
"Animals in other Gelede masks may be used for satiric purposes to criticize antisocial actions or attributes. Porcupines, because of their voracious appetites and slow, sluggish movement, are sometimes a metaphor for gluttonous or selfish persons. A headdress depicting a plump porcupine devouring a corncob conveys its greed and thus warns/reminds the audience about proper social behavior."
-snip-
WARNING: The comment section of that informative blog post about the Egbado Yoruba culture contains profanity and sexually explicit spam.
-snip-
Additional information about Gelede is found in the video summaries that are found below.
****
SHOWCASE EXAMPLES
These examples are given in chronological order according to their publishing dates on YouTube with the oldest dated example given first.
Example #1: Gelede Preview - www.Alawoye.com
Awo Ifálojú, Uploaded on Mar 4, 2008
This is a short video preview of Gelede festivals held at certain select locations of Yoruba land, this comprises the largest spectacle of Gelede across Yoruba land and Africa, held at the UNESCO Gelede House in northern Rep. of Benin,...
****
Example #2: The Oral Heritage of Gelede
UNESCO, Uploaded on Sep 26, 2009
UNESCO: Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity - 2008
URL: http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/RL/...
Description: The Gelede is performed by the Yoruba-Nago community that is spread over Benin, Nigeria and Togo. For more than a century, this ceremony has been performed to pay tribute to the primordial mother Iyà Nlà and to the role women play in the process of social organization and development of Yoruba society.
The Gelede takes place every year after the harvests, at important events and during drought or epidemics and is characterized by carved masks, dances and chants, sung in the Yoruba language and retracing the history and myths of the Yoruba-Nago people.
The ceremony usually takes place at night on a public square and the dancers prepare in a nearby house. The singers and the drummers are the first to appear. They are accompanied by an orchestra and followed by the masked dancers wearing splendid costumes. There is a great deal of preparatory craftwork involved, especially mask carving and costume making. The performances convey an oral heritage that blends epic and lyric verses, which employ a good deal of irony and mockery, supported by satirical masks. Figures of animals are often used, such as the serpent, a symbol of power, or the bird, the messenger of the mothers.
The community is divided into groups of men and women led by a male and a female head. It is the only known masked society, which is also governed by women. Although the Gelede has nowadays adapted to a more patriarchal society, the oral heritage and dances can be considered as a testimony of the former matriarchal order.
Technical development is resulting in a gradual loss of traditional know-how, and tourism is jeopardizing the Gelede by turning it into a folklore product. Nevertheless, the Gelede community shows great awareness of the value of their intangible heritage, which is reflected in the efforts put into the preparation work and in the growing number of participants.
Country(ies): Benin; Nigeria; Togo
-snip-
This video summary is reformatted to enhance reading clarity.
****
Example #3: Behind the mask of a West African tradition
AFP news agency, Uploaded on Oct 30, 2009
For more than 100 years, the Yoruba and Nago peoples of West Africa have performed the gelede, a masked song and dance ceremony recognised by UNESCO as a masterpiece of oral cultural heritage. It's performed to mark major events -- in particular the annual harvest --but also plays an important role in society. Duration: 02:18.
****
Example #4: Gelede at SICA 2011
Jelili Atiku, Published on Aug 23, 2012
The poem by M.O. Okogie in 1965, aptly describes GELEDE (or EFE) DANCE.
Okogie writes:
Gelede is another masquerade of repute
Here in the western Coast of the Bight of Benin:
He is grotesque in shape and he is less fleet of foot
He is cumbersome, ugly, and hefty, within.
There he goes in the street and is followed by children:
He is waving on hand his horse tail in response
To the adulations and praises of women
Whom he eyes with his head one way bent in askance.
He is out on the day after his midnight play:
For donations he dances and shakes his jingling feet:
He is bugbear to those at some distance away
Who are not his men but commoners of the street.
There are singers of women and drummers of men
When he dances at night in the Gelede way.
It is good to see him, as dancers were often
Beat the ground to the music and twist in the play.
Note:
The poem was cited in: Taiwo, O. (1965)(Ed), "Collected Poems for Secondary Schools-Book", (Revised Edition), Macmillan Education Limited, London, page 13.
****
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Visitor comments are welcome.
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