Victorian engraving of indigenous PNG Women washing Sago
– Sepik Artists and song writers have their way around figurative lines that will have one think deeper. Late Christain Mandawali for one have a lot of parabolic stanzas in lyrical contents of his songs. Take ‘Kwanya’ for instance, ” Yu kaikai Kumu, mi hangere.” One may think it’s just a literal line ’bout eating greens and hunger etc.. but it actually has a meaning behind it. Almost all the songs have ( I leave that to your interpretations.).
There are few more like; ” Kandere yu man turu, yu laik sutim mama pik… mama pik yah i ran away, yu kirap na paia nating.” This one may refer to someone who’s been trying his luck on a certain woman but failed. The lyrics was meant to be sarcastic like so it doesn’t sound too explicit nor serious but relatable in a decent manner.
One of my favorites is the Cockatoo’s analogy of Sepik women’s loud mouth in arguments. Late Mandawali was obviously referring to Sepik river women when he formulated the song. The cockatoo’s analogy went like this: ” Mi sanap long peles i gat mountain, mi harim yah! koki i karai… Sore susa yu wasim saksak long dirty wara.” Allow me to break this down:
This analogy of the ‘Koki’ ( Cockatoo) crying portrays the loud, sharp, high pitch voice tone of Sepik river women in an argument ( Wasim saksak long dirty wara). Her voice so loud, it reaches beyond average human voice projections limits ( Mi sanap long peles i gat maunten tasol still me harim koki yah i karai). Though he was standing far in the midst of mountains, he can still hear his sister talking, singing, laughing na wasim saksak side long wara tamblo long ples. What a beautiful parabolic statement.
The ‘ wasim saksak long dirty wara and Koki karai’ line in that song refers to either arguing or talking hyper-actively with joy and happiness. Hence, nothing beats the uttering noises of a group of Sepik women in the act of ‘ WASIM SAKSAK’. Yu can be miles away in the bush or beside the river but bai yu harim ol pairap wandem na wasim saksak stap.
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