The Ballad of Tuku Music

A Poem

The song on is just killing me
The heavy rhythm
The rich booming voice
The lyrics ignite in me
A wistful  longing
A wistful longing for that sweetness
The innocence from the distant bygone past
In my beloved homeland African village
The swift flow of the Lundazi river
Oh! How I yearn
For the sweet smelling scent of fresh water
The song is just killing me

Grandmother NyaMwaza calling
Her voice echoing in the tall trees
Of the nkhorongo wilderness
Mwizenge iwe  UUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Where njiba wild pigeons sing all day
It’s a tearful longing for a carefree past
A life and sweet land that my grandfather left
For Zibalwe and all the seventeen villages
Mtema, Kapyanga, Kamzati and fourteen others
Swaying the body to the music
Oh! How dancing is so irresistible.
The song is just killing me

The music stirs the deepest part of my soul
A few tears of pain and joy
Roll down my cheeks
The song touches tender cords in my soul
The Tumbuka say: nyimbo yudinginyika.
The song “whines” and “bemoans”.
The past that stretches a thousand years
The sweet primordial past
Oh! How the English is such a prison.
English is such a cage
The song is just killing me

October 1, 2004

When I first listened to the Oliver Mtukudzi song  “Ngoromera” it involved my deep memories from my childhood past. The poem above simply poured out of my heart.

 

On YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65rsgfztQhg