The African Hamerkop: The hamerkop is a very strange bird. It is a small, ugly-looking creature, but this creature is the second-most feared bird (after the fish eagle) in South Africa by black people. It is not so much feared as revered. Why? I don’t know. However, it is the one bird that our people all believe is a bird of very ill omen. It is also the symbol of vanity and human futility. When you see the hamerkop in the water, it always seems to be admiring itself in its reflection on the water. So our people believe that it is the symbol of pride and vanity. It is said that this bird is proud of its feathers and that it is always well groomed, making sure that there are no lice or fleas amongst its feathers. Zulu people have a powerful symbol of futility, a symbol that reminds human beings that they are really nothing, and that their pride is nothing. This symbol is that of the feather of a hamerkop floating down a stream, futility, being carried away by time. So feared is the hamerkop, that when people see it flying over someone’s village, they believe that a death is going to occur in that village. There are many beautiful songs in which they flatter this bird and ask it to go away peacefully. One such song we sang as children goes like this: Hamba we Thekwane Uliqhawe le Nyoni Hamba we Thekwane Uliphisi lenyoni Sithi hamba we Thekwane Uliqhawe lenyoni. In English the song translates approximately to: Fly hammerhead You warrior of a bird Go away o’ hammerhead You warrior of a bird Go away you hammerhead You warrior of a bird Go away you hammerhead O’ king amongst the birds One of the worst things that can happen to a person in southern Africa is to dream about a hamerkop flying in the sky or wading through water. This means a great disaster will follow that person. From the book Birds - African Folklore
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 12:40:42 +0000
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