A Nation of Poets
Africa News Service (Durham)
ANALYSIS
January 3, 1993
Posted to the web January 8, 2001
Tamela Hultman
Americans know Somalia as a land of gaunt children and marauding gunmen.
But for centuries, those familiar with the wedge-shaped piece of land jutting
into the Indian Ocean have called it "A Nation of Poets." Somalia's poetic
tradition differs markedly from Western practice. Somali scholar Said Sheikh
Samatar, in an essay to accompany a 1986 exhibit at the Smithsonian's Museum
of African Art, wrote that it is difficult for Westerners to appreciate
the role of poetry in Somali culture. "Whereas in the industrialized West,
poetry - and especially what is regarded as serious poetry - seems to be
increasingly relegated to a marginal place in society," he said, "Somali
oral verse is central to Somali life." .../more (pdf)
Mohamed Abdillahi Rirache
Many observers of Somali society have been very impressed by the Somali
veneration of poets and poetry; many references have been made to this very
important aspect of Somali culture. In 1854, Richard Burton observed that
the country was teeming with poets, poetasters and poetitos, and that every
man had a good ear for recognizing a good poem from a bad one. (1)
A century later (1964) Professors Andrzejewski and
Lewis admired Somali poets for achieving worthwhile results in the very
difficult medium of Somali prosody; they were also impressed by feats
of memory by the reciters of poetry, some of whom were poets (2). In reference
to Somali poetry, Said Samater, a Somali scholar, seconded these earlier
foreign scholars in their assessment of Somali poetry writing: "
.../more
(pdf)
Amina H. Adan
Women and Words
Poetry occupies a large and important place in Somali
culture
Interest in it is universal and skill in it is something
which everyone covets and many possess. The Somali poetic heritage is
a living force intimately connected with the vicissitudes of everyday
life.(1)
An apt description. The poet in Somali society
is the innovator of new styles of speech. He is the critic of despotic
chiefs and he is the artist whose verse gives pleasure to the mind. He
is also the agitator and he is the newscaster who informs his listeners
what is going on in the outside world. Somali poetry is sometimes a political
comment as the following verse shows; it was composed during the 1800s
when the African continent was divided among the European powers and Somalia,
in particular, was sliced among conquering factions .../more
(pdf)
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