ABSTRACT
Voice and Power, ed. R.J.Hayward & I.M.Lewis (ALC Supplement 3, 1996): 269-274.
Among the Afars, as among other traditional pastoralists of North-East Africa such as the Somalis or the Bejas, praising camels is one of the most common topics in poetry. Apart from its economic role, the camel fits into the aesthetics of these societies, being an animal which is symbolic of virility, self-reliance, and adventurousness, in which one may include reference to participation in risky ancilliary relationships. Nevertheless, the development of the formal constraints which leads to the recognition of camel poems as an oral genre varies from one culture to another.
