12 “I Would Have Given You a Large Haplochromis”

As Ssempeke suggests, “I Would Have Given You a Large Haplochromis” communicates the mutuality inherent in human relationships. It evokes Gabunga’s encounter with a common man, where he seeks his advice and they address the conditions of his task, resolving as to what Gabunga should do next. The song demonstrates how their interaction serves as a birthing ground for solving his conundrum. It further illustrates how the man’s perspective on the issue grants Gabunga valuable insight that directs him toward a new angle. As a result, despite his desire to go seek out a haplochromis, the man’s advice is beneficial, and Gabunga appreciates it.

Ssempeke’s performance of “I Would Have Given You a Large Haplochromis” features an accompaniment by the bow harp (ennanga), which produces a soft but effervescent buzzing timbre. Like other song presentations using the bow harp described in previous chapters, his performance includes two intertwined instrumental parts: a primary melody played by one hand and a secondary or countermelody played by another hand. These melodic parts collectively support the vocal part, and the three are inseparable. Ssempeke’s performance opens with the two instrumental parts interlocking. They are soon joined by his singing. These layers become interwoven, and yet each layer maintains its own rhythmic and melodic character. At times the three parts are in unison. No one part dominates another or receives special prominence. Ssempeke’s lyrics and their delivery express a bittersweet mood and emotion that captures the blend of the song’s feelings of appreciation and regret. One can feel this tone of appreciation in the song’s more effervescent aspects, while its regretful feeling resides in the tone of the performer’s vocal delivery. As such, the lyrics sound both forlorn and joyous. While Ssempeke’s performance is full of textural brilliance, his reserved singing style and introspective repetition of certain lyrics and instrumentation evokes the text’s sorrow. Throughout his performance, Ssempeke emphasizes the tones of the bow harp’s low-pitched strings, and his voice tends to remain on certain pitches of the strings for longer than others. Furthermore, his vocal melodies consistently start on high pitches and descend into a lower tonal range over time rather than rising or fluctuating back and forth. These, among other performance techniques, bring out a wistful and forlorn atmosphere. Ssempeke’s lyrics appear below:

In Ssempeke’s lyrics, he expresses the pain that arises when one fails to reciprocate another’s assistance. He also describes the gift of the haplochromis to express reciprocity, agonizing over his sudden inability to show his appreciation to another (lines 1–2). In referring to the person to whom he owes this favor, the performer often switches between describing his father or mother (lines 4 and 17), even using vague pronouns (line 2 and 13). As a result, the figure whom the singer owes becomes interchangeable. This quality is also true of the singer’s identity, as he refers to himself at times as a spouse (lines 6 and 11) or pauper (lines 9–10, and 20), but he only does so during specific sections of the song and is quick to diverge from the tone and message that accompanies those self-identifications. The singer also takes on the identity of “the twin,” the king (line 21), a strategy that enables him to switch perspectives between the king and a subject. Overall, “I Would Have Given You a Large Haplochromis” collects multiple unique perspectives on processing the loss of reciprocity, which it articulates through variations in its lyrics. Another key theme in the song is the notion of external actors plotting the singer’s downfall (line 14). His regret draws on this fact, as he comes to recognize that the one who had once helped him is no longer there.

As we have seen, the main portion of “I Would Have Given You a Large Haplochromis” laments the singer’s failure to fulfill his part of a relationship and thus sever the loop of exchange. However, the singer does not base the song on guilt, instead framing it with a genuine sense of loss, as though his failure to reciprocate has been injurious to his existence in a more profound way. This is not loss in the traditional sense but in that one has lost tandem with a mutually beneficial relationship whereby the singer is no longer able to share and reciprocate the assistance of another. In this way, mutuality is not just a moral demand that people should serve one another because it is the right thing to do, but a relationship that fulfills the servant and recipient alike. It is joyful because this reciprocity is imbued with vitality. The song’s form further exemplifies the concepts above, as the singer shuttles between perspectives and meanings. He is a spouse and a kin and a nobody, and those whom he owes are his mother, father, or an unnamed friend. Here, mutuality extends out to everyone in the community, as the composition’s perspectives are themselves disseminated. This serves to encourage an interwoven web of interactions, which the performer constructs between the song’s multivariate identities.