Updated: A Fulani Lullaby

I grew up in a Senegalese Fulani/ Pulaar household where pulaar was the dominant language spoken at home. The above lullaby is one of the many lullaby my mother sang to me while I was growing up. It is lullaby I sing to my cousin when she refuses to stop crying. It’s a lullaby that transcends generations. Shange mentioned “mama’s little baby likes shortnin shortnin/ mama’s little baby likes shortnin bread” in her book For Colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow wasn’t enuf which reminded me of that Fulani lullaby.

Both poems are very gendered especially the Fulani one, which doesn’t gender the child but only the absent mother is mentioned. In the Fulani lullaby, the relationship between the child and his or her mother is well established. The crying baby is only missing or crying for his/her mother, who has the unshakable image as the child’s only care taker. The “shortin bread” poem also has the same effect. Rather intentional or not, both poems, in many ways, enforce gender roles and a father’s un-involvement in his child’s raising. Shortnin bread and the fulani lullaby are forms of history that continue to live through the kids of the present.