Me papa me papa, Billy is dead
If you look in the pot, you see Billys flesh
Oh, me papa me papa, Billy is dead
Me papa me papa, Billy is dead
If you look in the cupboard, youll see Billys flesh
Oh, me papa me papa, Billy is dead
Me papa me papa, Billy is dead
As the father is coming from work in the morning,
He saw a bird that followed him
(Bird swallowed Billys heart)
And when he stopped the bird would sing to him, but he wouldnt listen.
Then he stopped and listened to what the bird had said and decided to bring the bird home
On the way home father bought a fish and the butcher cut the fish and saw Billys ring in the fishs mouth
When he got home he asked his wife (Billys step mom) where Billy went, his wife said Billy went to fetch water
Me papa me papa, Billy is dead
If you look in the pot, you see Billys flesh
Oh, me papa me papa, Billy is dead
Me papa me papa, Billy is dead
If you look in the cupboard, youll see Billys flesh
Oh, me papa me papa, Billy is dead
Me papa me papa, Billy is dead
Billys father knew she was lying and took a knife and cut the wife and took the wifes blood and put it on the birds head and the bird became Billy.
The end.
My roommate Ayeetin, Ayee for short, first heard this Cameroonian song/story as a young child. Her uncle, her fathers brother, originally sang the song and retold the story to her, when she was about four years old in San Jose, California. She recalls sitting on her uncles lap as a young girl as he shared this morbid but educational tale to her. The way this piece of folklore is performed is the following: the repeated verses are chanted, then the story of Billys fathers journey from work and his discovery is told, then the chant is repeated once more, and then the climactic ending is explained.
This story of Billy is a story designed for entertainment purposes to Cameroonian children. It is part of the Cameroonian Arabian Night series, which is a collection of other pieces of Cameroonian folklore, similar in nature to this story of Billy.
As a young child growing up, Ayee was taught that this story is a testament as to how the truth can be revealed after death. In that sense, this marchen tale also takes on the role of a proverb in that it essentially teaches a universal truth. I feel as though this tale highly emphasizes the importance of being truthful by employing a bit of a fear factor. By implementing such elements as death, and boiling flesh in a pot, this tale highlights the fact that in the end, the truth will prevail anyway. Additionally, the tale employs some elements of Proppians functions: the journey that the father travels on from home to work; the trusty companion he gainsthe bird who gives him the tip; and the conniving stepmother.
Annotation: This tale can be found in its original form in
The Crystal World
J.G. Ballard
New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux (1966)
Traces of elements in this marchen can also be found in
Papas Daughter
Dorothy Ahmad
The Drama Review: TDR, Vol. 12, No. 4, Black Theater (Summer 1968), pp. 139 145
Published by: The MIT Press