.../continued. Go to part 1 | 2
My mum sang another song called ‘Riu Riu Nhanha’ - (Hush Baby, be quiet). It’s all about cooking porridge for the crying baby who’s tired and hungry. You’ll be singing to the baby, saying, ‘It’s ok my baby. Why are you crying? For the porridge? Whose porridge? For the baby? Which baby? My baby. Where’s the baby? I’m carrying the baby on my back’
The main point for you is to keep the baby quiet so you can
cook the porridge. Then the baby can eat it and fall asleep again.
That’s what we do in Zimbabwe because we Africans are very hardworking ladies. There’s no time to rock the baby in your arms. You’ll be carrying the baby on your back whilst carrying something else on your head. You may be weeding with the baby on your back so you’ll be singing this song and rocking the baby at the same time.
It makes me think of home - especially my mum. I miss her a lot. She means everything to me. The lullaby needs a lot of patience because the baby will go on crying so you’ve got to be patient too. It shows me how to be a mother and reminds me of how difficult it is to be a good one. I learned to sing the lullabies from my mum because she used to sing them to her grandsons - me and my sister’s children.
Most of the people in Zimbabwe sing these lullabies, especially in rural areas. In towns kids have tv’s but in rural areas most people still sing lullabies to their babies.
back to the first part of this tale
