Praise poems are are the most ancient form of poems. They were used to praise kings and warriors to boost their egos while narrating their heroic deeds. Praise poems are still commonly used even to this day by many on occasions where members of a certain clan take pride to praise themselves. In the South African parliament, the president is at times praised with a praise poem.
Praise Poems Common Names
While praise poems were used all over the world by many cultures, African cultures have given praise poems names in their own languages.:
- Nigeria: Yorùbá praise peoms are called Oriki
- South Africa: isiZulu praise poems are called lsibongo
- South Africa: Tswana, praise poems are called Maboko
Video: Example of African Praise Poem:
Characteristics of a Praise Poem
You will often identify a praise poem by the following characteristics:
- expression of admiration toward self, or others
- proclaim positive attributes
- honouring and respecting
- made up of metaphors and similes
- each line is a celebratory declaration
- often linked to the uncestery events
List of Two Examples of Praise Poems
Example one:
Title: In Praise of Cattle
They are as greedy as Ishe-Katabazi;
I want them to graze in the newly burnt grass of Rwanda.
When they stampede they are as loud as the morning rain;
They are searching for the progeny of the spotted bull.
They stand still, graceful with their encircling horns
Like queens preparing their curls.
They are dressed in spotted cloth;
They are well-behaved as they play in the rain.
The light rain has given them shade;
They have kept secret the new grass in the valleys.
They have spent the day at the muziizi trees of Katooma;
When they come home loneliness vanishes.
She Who Wears The Bell and She Whose Horns Encircle Like Handcuffs
Thanked him for bringing them from an evil country.
How straight are the horns of the daughter of The One Who Excels All Others!
The horns of The One Who Gambols are spotless.
The reed-like horns of the daughter of The Spotted One stand erect;
There is no dust on the horns of The One Who is Made Forgetful By Dancing.
She stretches out her horns till they reach to the Pleiades;
When she draws them back we can see Rumaranku.
She Whose Horns Reach To The Stars is graceful in her circlet;
She Whose Horns Are Too Wide For The Watering Trough has departed.
To long for a thing and to see it
Is as though you had seen Kihondwa and Rukari.
I used to long for an active cow;
Now I am blessed by the daughter of Karanga’s beast.
At Bijinja which faces Mukande,
She Who Drives All Cattle Before Her walks in Kiganda style.
She Who Goes At Speed To Her Shed, the brown cow, the daughter of the spotted one,
Is like a new bark cloth, soft as though smoked.
Do not cut the tips of her horns and thus spoil them;
The Fighter tyrannises over her neighbours.
When they were gambolling in the hills,
Those who were cold whistled.
At little Nshwere which faces Mpabura,
They took themselves to the troughs of others when their water was gone.
Here you are, you trouble makers, the insignificant ones;
You have begun again upsetting your neighbours.
You should give them a second bell;
Those with few cattle should separate.
She Who Seeks No Quarrel lows like the palace harp
As she stays in the sheds.
She who plays the harp first praises herself,
Why then have I forgotten The One Who Dries Her White Horn?
When they started running to Kanyanya,
They left behind the old men with their shelters.
When they stampede they are as loud as the morning rain;
They are searching for the progeny of the spotted bull.
by H.F. Morris ‘The Praise Poems of Bahima Women’
from African Language Studies VI (1965);
Example Two:
Title: Ojea, The Fight is Over
Ojea, noble Ojea, look round before you depart,
Ojea, see, the fight is over;
Fire has consumed the square and then the home,
Ojea, see, the fight is over.
Ojea, Brother Ojea, ponder and look,
Ojea, see, the fight is over;
If rain soaks the body, will the clothes be dry?
Ojea, ah! The fight is over.
Sources
https://penandthepad.com/write-praise-poem-7878965.html
https://www.hmhco.com/blog/how-to-write-a-praise-poem