Page 4 - The Poetic Books - Student Text

The Watchtower were trying cunningly to convert me on Saturday,
That I should go to their meeting-place at two o’clock on Sunday.
We also have gospels – the drums,
We who dance kalela.
God hates nobody!
To Heaven we shall climb,
We shall go and live at Lucifer’s place
In his stockade.
We shall go with our drums:
Even in Heaven you will hear them roaring.
You women who are at the dancing pitch,
You should go before it is too late.
You should go and eat beforehand
And you should tell those who have remained at home
That they should also come after they have eaten.
Those who want to wash clothes, let them wash them,
Those who want to iron, let them iron,
Those who want to bathe, let them bathe,
Those who want to dress up, let them dress up
Because of this day’s dancing!
Copperbelt! The drum!
The whistle-boy is there, The line-boy is there,
The spectators are coming from Lambaland and other distant places.
Why are you beating the drum? At two o’clock it begins.
The song is finished, mothers, go away.
Today, someone will be beaten with a stick,
But don’t you blame us, saying,
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‘I die because of you kalela dancers!’

The five books in our study are not only considered poetry. They are also categorized as wisdom
literature, a different classification than the rest of the Bible. They are not historical narrative like
Genesis or Joshua. They are not lists of laws or instructions about the tabernacle like Exodus. They are
not necessarily direct revelation from God like Isaiah or Obadiah, although the final product is revelation.
Wisdom literature can be found in many ancient cultures. Peoples around the world used their reasoning
abilities to make sense out of life. They wanted to prosper. That meant understanding nature and the
one who created nature. The wisdom of Native Americans was often told in colorful, detailed stories that
illustrate a truth in life.

3 C. Mitchel, Manchester University Press, 1956, http://www.africanpoems.net/pleasure/the-kalela-
dance/. Footnotes to the song identify “Watchtower” as Jehovah’s Witnesses, “whistle-boy” and “line-
boy” as a football referee and linesman, and “someone will be beaten” as women punished by their
husbands for watching Kalela instead of doing housework.
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