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African Poetry, an Anthology of Traditional African Poems
African Poetry an Anthology of Traditional African Poems Author:Ulli Beier (Compiler; Editor) Poetry occupies a central place in the life of traditional African societies. Praise singers, drummers, priests, hunters, masqueraders and mothers, all have to recite and invent poetry. The young girl pounding yam or cassava sings a poem about her lover, the mother sings her child to sleep with traditional or original songs. — The author hopes th... more »at this collection will help to reawaken among students in Africa interest in poetry composed in their African mother tongues. It will also help to stimulate interest in many parts of the world outside the African continent.
Collected from many parts of Africa and from many different languages, the poems have been sympathetically translated into English. The music of an African tonal language can never be fully expressed in English, and much may have been lost in translaton. African Poetry does, however, at least give an intimation of the intricate rhythms and of the imagery of this kind of poetry.« less