Singing is not only an integral part of daily life for Somali women but also a medium through which they can express their grievances and criticise paternalistic social norms that have solidified men’s hegemony over women and limited their social participation to certain stereotyped roles. From a mother’s lullabies to work songs, folkloric dance lyrics and the famous buraanbur genre, Somali women’s sung poetry conveys messages and stories about their status in society.[1]
When
looking at the below folkloric lyrics[2], one can see that Somali women refused
to be bystanders in the debate for social change. They led an awareness
campaign through their sung poetry to engender the kind of social reform they
aspired to achieve.
In
the following example, which scorns the expected role of a bride, a woman warns
her female friend, geelo in Somali, about the predicaments she would face on
the first night of her marriage.
Haddaba
geeladaydii (Oh, my dear geelo)
Ila
garan ogtaydii (My graceful dancing partner)
Caawaba
dirqaad geli (Tonight, you will enter a forced bondage)
Dirqi
wiil yar baad geli (The bondage of a young boy)
Dabka
iga shid baad geli (Who will command you to make the fire for him).
To
which her friend replies:
Hadaba qayradaydii (Oh my dear geelo)
Caawa
qaday Alla I qaad (Tonight I will abstain from eating)
Qabri
la igu duuduub (A doomed one, I am hurled into a grave).
Polygamy
is another topic that Somali women frequently crticise in their sung poetry, as
reflected by the following well-known lines of the ‘Godadle’ song, which women
sing when pounding grain with a mortar and pestle:
Godadle
godadleeyow godadle (Oh, you man with many hovels)
Godadle
xiisaalow godadle (Oh, you with a fickle desire, you with many hovels)
Kii
garreey gubayow (Oh, you who tortured Garreey)
Kii
gadh ceesaanlow (Oh, you with a goatee beard)
Kii
gafuur dibilow (Oh, you with a frowned face like an ox)
Gabadh
yar uu gabayuu (Oh, you man who after neglecting his young wife)
Uu
guduudiyayuu (And beaten her red)
Uu
gogosha ku cunayuu (And killed her with nagging in bed)
Way
gabtaa yidhiyee godadle (Then accused her of ignoring him).
The
poetry of Somali women does not spare young single men of what some see as
mischievous behavior and an indifferent attitude towards women. The following
lines accuse young single men of being only concerned about their bellies and
not taking part in domestic chores that women usually attend to.
Doobow
dibiro aylow (Oh, single man, all you care about is filling your belly like a
dog)
Diixaax
waraasaalow (Oh, how content you are with your life)
Dibi
ceel ka soo fulayow (Like a bull just returning from its watering hole)
Waxa
doob iyaa rara (Oh, how I wish that the single man was loaded like a camel)
Rara
oo rakaabiya (Loaded with full water containers)
Dhanba
laba sideedaad (Two loads of eight containers on one side)
Dhanba
laba sagaalaad (Two loads of nine containers on the other)
Suudiga
dharaareed (And then drive him through the hot, harsh desert)
Soddohdiina
daba dhiga (With his mother-in-law walking behind him prodding him to speed
up).
The
plight that befalls women who give birth to girls rather than boys is another
topic that Somali women address. In a paternalistic society, Somali people tend
to value boys over girls, with men often being angered when their partners give
birth to girls. There are also instances where men leave their wives if they
bear girls.
In
one widely-known folk song, the character Qaladla Nur, who gave birth to only
girls one pregnancy after another, sees her husband mount his horse and depart
in the early morning, after she delivered another girl. Lamenting the actions
of her husband, Qaladla seeks comfort by talking to her new baby girl, Hubeeya,
about her plight:
Hubeeyaay aabahaa
Hubka
qaadayoo
Heensaha
duleedka dhigay (Oh Hubeeya, your father has taken his weapons and saddled his
horse outside the homestead)
Ee
awal ayaa uumayeen
Ilaah
ahayn (But who created her but God?)
Hubeeya
Allaa uumayee ayaa
Loogu
umal qabaa (Allah alone has created Hubeeya. So why blame anyone else?)
Qaladla
then turns to her eldest daughter to tell her that since her husband has
abandoned her, she also intends to leave her family and return to her parents.
Wallee
Qaafo Rooxaay (Oh, my daughter Qafo Roxa)
Haddaan
aabbahaa i rabin (If your father doesn’t love me)
Wallee
ruuxayga ruuxaaga uma daayacoo (Then in the name of God, I will not sacrifice
my life for you)
Wallee
reerahayagii ramado wawgu tegi (I will join my father’s family in their
homestead in Ramado).
But
when on another occasion Qaladla gives birth to a baby boy, her husband becomes
intoxicated with happiness, and, being a man of little wealth, he raids the
camels of another clan to host a feast and celebrate the arrival of his first
son. Deriding the action of raiding and looting to celebrate the birth of a
son, Qaladla addresses her baby boy with sarcasm:
Maxaan
rayayeey (Oh, how fortunate we have become)
Maxaa
reer la ii rokolay (How much misery have we caused other families?)
Maxaan
awrtii ogaadeen
Aamin
cunay. (Oh, Amin, my son, how many of the Ogaden clan’s camels have we
consumed?)