A long poetic narrative form that West African women sing is called the saabi. The saabi reveals the nature of relationships between men and women. Sidikou-Morton describes the saabi as a "subversive epic," because it challenges male superiority.
In one saabi, called "The Wicked Man," a new bride, suspicious of her husband's intentions because he has divorced many women in the past, gets the jump on him before he can divorce her. She goes out to plant millet with him and as he walks in front of her digging holes for the seeds, she secretly throws the seeds away. When he believes the planting is done, he has no more use for his wife and so divorces her. But when he tells her to go, she tells him that she divorced him already.
She laughed and said,
"You did not divorce me first
"I first divorced you."…
She said, "as for a woman, if a man can think of ten tricks,"
She said, "one trick from a woman will trump his."
Vee's Saabi
I sit at my desk
diligently working through the piles and stacks
answering the telephones
typing until my fingers and eyes ache
incurring wounds
by vicious male created sharpened manila files
soothing savage breasts
and stroking delicate male egos
like a fat cat potentate
impressed with your grandeur and prowess
you lounge against the break room wall
chatting with the other workplace warriors
shakers and the movers
big salaried shake your money moaners and groaners
scratching your balls and pissing in the wind
while I quietly complete the day’s duties
then head home to my evening job
