To Palm Wine 
Alimotu of the gourd
Lamihun in the fibrous clump
Dawn it is that heralds your approach
When evening comes, the drum crooks taps
Taps, taps in gladness
Mistress of tuppence only, yet
Chased the millionaire into the forest.
You are that which the horse drank
Drank, drank and forgot his horns
You are that which the cock drank
Drank, drank and forgot to urinate
You are that which the guinea fowl drank
Drank, till a cry pierced his throat
And he took to the wilds . . .
Traditional (from the Yoruba)
Nigerian Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, in introducing the anthology of African poetry, Poems of Black Africa (Hienemann, 1975) writes of the poetic experience in Black Africa and compares it closely with the poetic experience universally. This publication was an important collection of African poetry and one of the contributions of the Heinemann “African Writers Series” to the phenomenal rise of modern African literature in English. It began to take shape in the 1950s and escalated through the 1960s.
This corpus of work weaned itself from Commonwealth Literature to become an international force in its own right and name. It was already well established when Soyinka’s anthology came out, which was, more than anything else, drawing together in one collection much of what had already been published separately. In many ways, the history and development of this writing may be compared to West Indian literature, and the truth of Soyinka’s reference to the poetry experience everywhere can easily be seen.
But these comparisons can very especially be seen in those branches of Commonwealth Literature such as the writings of Africa, the West Indies or India, which grew out of the colonial experience. While all Commonwealth countries have this colonial background, there are important differences between those and others such as the Canadian, Australian or South African.
Soyinka references some significant characteristics, including imitation, intertextual engagements and oral literature. He did not quite get into one of the most remarkable developments – that of the evolution of post-colonial literature, which is one of the foremost branches of literature in the contemporary world. Post-colonialism informs much of African poetry.
Soyinka analyses the imitation of English Romantic and Victorian verse, which he says goes “even to the extent of outright plagiarism and covers the entire spectrum of stylistic development”. He continues:
“. . . Twenty years ago, it was quite possible to read poems (of serious intent) which began “Gather ye hibiscus while ye may”, while today, we are more commonly inundated with creations of Waste Lands of tropical humidity”. (1975)
That was also true in the history of West Indian literature.
Another observation had to do with intertextual engagement. Soyinka writes:
“A distinct quality in all great poets does exercise a ghostly influence in other writers . . . Modern African poems which betray traces of an internal dialogue are often accused of affectation, but an examination of traditional poetry reveals that it too is built on a densely packed matrix of references (and not, as is sometimes claimed to the contrary, on simplistic narrative)”.
This brings us to consideration of oral literature, which is distinguished from written literature in several ways, but, as Soyinka points out, there are significant similarities. The poem “To Palm Wine” is an example of oral literature. This form of literature flourished and was at a peak when written literature was developing in Africa south of the Sahara. It was the norm in traditional societies and had multiple functions which did not cease with the advance of written African literature in English. They co-exist in these societies and influence each other. The intertextual engagements already referred to take place within the forms, but across forms.
The poem “His Majesty the Masquerader”, for instance, by foremost African poet John Pepper Clarke is a good example of these influences. It is a praise song to masqueraders, who are critical to religious ritual in the traditional society – thus it has crucial links to traditions and to oral poetry.
He serves
To ford between swamp and sand,
He serves!
In Ojoto
So they worship the masks,
Altho’ in season –
So, the poem is written in the praise song tradition and pays homage to the spiritual ritual of the masquerade. Here, the poet has borrowed from oral literature in the style and structure of his poem.
Not far removed from this is “To Palm Wine”. It has no author, was composed by, and drawn from, the traditional community. It therefore has certain qualities. There are two important poetic traditions relevant here – the griot and the praise singer. Both are praise, oratorical and performance traditions. The griot normally performs in oratory and recitation, the history of kingdoms, nations, villages, or of kings, heroes, outstanding personalities and wealthy men. At times griots are employed to tell or sing these often-embellished stories. The griots are thought to have researched this information.
Often, though, the information sung by griots include myth, legend, folklore as well as history. All of these go into the large epic poems that may be performed by griots. There is a closeness, then, between this and the praise singing; often, both are integrated.
The praise singing tradition is the hiring of an orator to sing the praises of a king, a hero, an outstanding personality or a wealthy man. It is oratory – it traces the mighty or noble lineage of the person, going into genealogy in glorified detail. Everything is highly embellished in poetic and musical language. In order to praise and elevate the subjects, they may be compared to mythical greatness, mythological personalities or creatures that would enlarge the stature of the individual.
In the poem above, palm wine is being praised, which makes for a fairly lighthearted, if not jocular subject. Palm wine is a famous strong alcoholic drink made from the fermented fluid taken from the palm tree. Skilled tapsters climb the trees to extract the liquid, and they become important individuals. Everyone drinks palm wine, from workers to kings and even gods. There are sundry stories, many mythical, of persons getting drunk on this alcoholic beverage.
Thus, there is much mythological reference in this poem. This is so to the extent of myths of origin. For instance, horses used to have horns – it was palm wine that caused the change; the guinea fowl lives in the wild and makes a piercing cry. It is about the great attributes, the influence of palm wine, that was the cause of all these changes. It is so powerful that it can change the universe. Palm wine is personified – it is so important that great natural elements like dawn and evening herald its approach. Palm wine is treated like a king or a god. Drums play to celebrate this great presence.
Oral literature in Africa has therefore been a major study with such scholars as Ruth Finnegan or Abimbola. This poem, paying homage to palm wine, is a good example, as is another from Swahili, which is untitled, but begins, “O tapster of soured wine”, also dedicated to the tapster of palm wine.
One may also recall one of the great African Yoruba novels – The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola, which is one of the earliest pioneering works in African literature published in English. This one, in the most complex fashion, integrates the written fiction with the myths and traditions of the Yoruba. This novel is also in praise of the gloriously important tapster of the great palm wine.
