A Gullah Song in Mende
Dr. Lorenzo Turner recorded this song in Harris Neck, Georgia in the early 1930s from a Gullah Woman named Amelia Dawley. The original version contained ten lines, as some were repeated once or twice. Over the years, the Gullah people who preserved the song changed the pronunciation slightly and deleted a number of one-syllable words, but the text is still understandable to a modern Mende speaker. In fact, the song contains a number of dialectal features characteristic of the Wanjama Mende who dwell in Pujehun District in far southern Sierra Leone, where the Mende and Vai regions border.
This is a typical Mende funeral song (finya wulo) performed by women as they
pound rice into flour for a sacrifice to the dead. Mende women traditionally
remain in town preparing for the sacrifice while the men are in the cemetery
preparing the grave. This song was probably handed down among the Gullah from
mother to daughter, mother to daughter, through the generations.
The Mende spelling is somewhat altered, as the Mende alphabet contains some special linguistic symbols which cannot be used here. Translations by Momoh Koroma and Joseph A. Opala.
A wohkoh, mu mohne;
kambei ya le; li lee tohmbe.
A wohkoh, mu mohne; kambei ya le; li lee ka.
Ha sa wuli nggo, sihan, kpangga li lee.
Ha sa wuli nggo, ndeli, ndi, ka.
Ha sa wuli nggo, sihan, kuhan ndayia.
Modern Mende:
A wa kaka, mu mohne; kambei ya le'i tambee.
A wa kaka, mu mohne; kambei ya le'i, lii i lei kaka.
So ha a guli wohloh, i sihan, yey kpanggaaa a lohlohhu lee.
So ha a guli wohloh; ndi lei; ndo lei, kaka.
So ha a guli wohloh, i sihan; kuhan ma wo ndayia ley.
English:
Come quickly, let us work hard; the grave is not yet finished; his heart (the deceased's) is not yet perfectly cool (at peace).
Come quickly, let us work hard; the grave is not yet finished; let his heart be cool at once.
Sudden death cuts down the trees, borrows them; the remains disappear slowly.
Sudden death cuts down the trees; let it (death) be satisfied, let is be satisfied, at once.
Sudden death cuts down the trees, borrows them; a voice speaks from afar.
A wohkoh, mu mohne; kambei ya le; li lee ka.
Ha sa wuli nggo, sihan, kpangga li lee.
Ha sa wuli nggo, ndeli, ndi, ka.
Ha sa wuli nggo, sihan, kuhan ndayia.
Modern Mende:
A wa kaka, mu mohne; kambei ya le'i tambee.
A wa kaka, mu mohne; kambei ya le'i, lii i lei kaka.
So ha a guli wohloh, i sihan, yey kpanggaaa a lohlohhu lee.
So ha a guli wohloh; ndi lei; ndo lei, kaka.
So ha a guli wohloh, i sihan; kuhan ma wo ndayia ley.
English:
Come quickly, let us work hard; the grave is not yet finished; his heart (the deceased's) is not yet perfectly cool (at peace).
Come quickly, let us work hard; the grave is not yet finished; let his heart be cool at once.
Sudden death cuts down the trees, borrows them; the remains disappear slowly.
Sudden death cuts down the trees; let it (death) be satisfied, let is be satisfied, at once.
Sudden death cuts down the trees, borrows them; a voice speaks from afar.
[ Mende & Gullah ]
"Their task was formidable. The Mende are the largest ethnic group in Sierra Leone, numbering in the millions, but fortunately Koroma recognized a dialect word in the song, pointing to a specific area. The researchers played the recording in village after village, but after no one recognized it, they were at the point of giving up. Then, Schmidt found a woman named Baindu Jabati in the remote interior village of Senehun Ngola. Jabati knew a song with strikingly similar lyrics, an ancient Mende funeral dirge performed during a graveside ceremony called teijami, or “crossing the river.” “Her grandmother taught her the song,” she said, “a women’s song, as birth and death rites are women’s responsibilities in Mende culture.” Jabati’s grandmother had made the uncanny prediction that there would be a homecoming in their village one day, a return of lost family, and that the old funeral song would link them to their returned kinsmen." [ Mende Song ]
Rest in Perfect Peace.
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