African Folklore: An Encyclopedia - Marshalls University

African folklore 856
storyteller is making the point that God creates, but humans must themselves learn to deal
with the great forces that God has given them, or else they will perish.
In a Tswana myth, the Creator of all things sends the chameleon to earth to tell the
people that when they die they will be reborn. But because Chameleon was slow, a lizard
overtook him and gave his own message to the humans: “Whenever people die, they die
for good” (Jones and Plaatje 1916, 1–2). And so it was that death came into the world.
Xhosa myth celebrates Qamatha, “master of everything, father of all things,…the creator
of old” (Sinhanha Mbalo 1967, Scheub collection). Death means a movement to the
heavens: “Guide me, O Hawk!/ That I may go heavenward./To seek the one-hearted
man,/ Away from the double-hearted men,/Who deal in blessing and cursing.” With
irony, the commentator adds, “We trust that there were some of our people in heaven
before the missionaries came” (Callaway, 1880, 59). The storytelling tradition unfolds
within this mythic frame. In a Zulu origin myth, Umpondo Kambule (Callaway, 1868,
89–95) effectively blends a contemporary kidnapping tale and a mythic parting of waters
and emergence from reeds: the past is destroyed and a new world born. Callaway’s Zulu
informants provide some detail regarding this mythic system. In the Zulu religious
system, Nkulunkulu is God: “The old men say that Unkulunkulu is Umvelinqangi [the
first being, the creator], for they say he came out first; they say he is the Uthlanga
[potential source of being] from which all men broke off” (Ufulatela Sitole, quoted in
Callaway, 1913, 7).
Heroic Poetry
Heroic poetry is popular throughout southern Africa. A Ndebele poem reads: “News of
the nation of Matshoban’, dzi dzi!/Come and see, come and see!/Here is news of
Matshoban’!/No other nation will come, dzi dzi!” (Trask 1966, 85). The continued
influence of such oral poetry can be seen in contemporary literature by Ndebele poets. Of
the various categories of oral tradition among the Sotho people, heroic poetry is highly
valued. Everitt Lechesa Segoete found emotional power in the Sotho national poem,
“Mokorotlo (Song of the Enemies) and notes in his Raphepheng that the words are so sad
that “There is no Mosotho who listens to them without feeling his heart rise” as the song
causes him to remember other times: “It is an ageless war song, unchanging. It treats of
death and war, of vultures eating the bodies of men: ‘Boy child, offering to the vultures,
and to Jackal and Crow.’ Although the song is about men, its words have a poignant
effect on women as well. When they hear it, they utter shrill cries. As long as the Basotho
remain a nation, the song will be sung” (1913, 37).
Azariele M.Sekese described how Sotho warriors, during times of war, composed
praise songs for themselves. Some leaders, among them Lejaha Makhabane, also
composed poetry for themselves. A warrior would recount the details of his valorous
behavior on the day of battle. Having done so, he would stab the ground a number of
times equal to the number of enemy soldiers he had killed: “If it was one, he would stab
the ground once; if two, then he would stab twice…” As he did so, the group that
surrounded him would join in, crying, “Hii! Hii! Hii! Hii!” each time he stabbed the
ground. Then, as he ended his activity, he would point with his spear the number of times
equivalent to the number of those he had killed, pointing towards the enemy. And he