GABAY-HAYIR: A SOMALI MOCK HEROIC SONG
Said S. Samatar
March 24, 2008
Editorial Note:
The following piece, again another vintage article from Said Samatar of Rutgers University, is republished by Wardheernews. We had received numerous requests from some of our readers who urged us to find and post this extremely literary work. Known for his versatile and refined verses and prose, we believe that our readers would derive tremendous pleasure from this piece.
The country teems with 'poets' . . . every man has his recognized
position in literature as accurately defined as though
he had been reviewed in a century of magazines-the fine ear
of this people causing them to take the greatest pleasure in
harmonious sounds and poetic expressions, whereas a false
quantity or prosaic phrase excites their violent indignation
. . . Every chief in the country must have a panegyric to be
sung by his clan, and the great patronize light literature by
keeping a poet.'
So wrote the romantic, eccentric British explorer, Sir Richard Burton,
in the 1850s from the Somali coast of Zaylac. Click here to read the entire article.
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