Praise Song to the Waterbuck

(Credo Mutwa)

Toyi, toyi, toyi, toyi, serwala botbloko!

You, who carry the pain of people between your horns.
You, who remove the illness from the ailing chieftain so that he may once more rise and lead his people.
You, who are the darling of the blacksmiths.
You, who are the friend of all healers.
You, who show us the way and tell us how we should live.
That we may not quarrel with the trees.
That we may not argue with the forests.
That we may not be enemies of the grass.
That we may not be foes of the rocks!

Run, waterbuck.
Take my illness away!

Run, waterbuck.
Take my bad luck away!

Run, beautiful one.
And bring health to my little babies, to my wife and my grandmother!

You were blessed many, many, many years ago by Modimo.
You were blessed many generations ago by Mmamogolo, the mother of all life.

Run, run, waterbuck.

May you run for the next thirty generations.
May you run for the next thousand years.
May your kind exist even though the mountains have become like little hills.
And the hills have become as small as anthills.
And the anthills have disappeared.

May you be there, waterbuck, when the sun no longer sets, but sits above the western mountains, dying of old age.
May you be there, waterbuck, when the human race no longer walks upon this world.
And the huts and the villages have become ruins upon the forgotten valleys!
May you be there.
You, who carry within you the sacred stone of life which your first ancestor swallowed in the village of the great god.

Look upono me with your smiling eyes, oh serwala bothloko.
Taker-away of pain.
Hear my plea with your beautiful ears.
And show me the white mark on your backside.
As you take away my misfortune and dump it in the bush, never to be seen again!

Hay-ee! Hay-ee! Serwala bothloko!
Hay-ee! Taker-away of pain!

The streams smile when you come and the rivers weep when you go.

Also read The Carrier of Pain (Credo Mutwa)