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1 John Nkemngong Nkengasong The Coming of the Sages The Manjong drums rumble The coming of the sages Carrying calabashes of knowledge On their heads From their wanderings far and wide To the rolling hills of Nweh Where valleys heap beyond valleys Lightening flashes In the womb of the thunderstorm As Lebialem Falls roar down the cliff And the rains pour from the lakes above And the winds hoot their whistling horns Through trees that bow To the rhythm of the gong To Fuandem, the young and the old, Take your offerings of tethered rams, Palm wine, colanuts and all At the solemn shrine, stink The air with herbs of sacrifices As of old, stoop in supplication And wake the long-forgotten god Buièh tangtê mbo éééh.... And sing and dance as the sages come With arty tales of ancient times In your ordained wears Strike the Manjong tunes and Flog the drums till they bleed out melody Weave the Akoh xylophones While the women shake their bosoms in frenzy And the men draw and clang their machetes And seal the rhythm of ecstasy In the rising dust To ancestors in the underworld. ...

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