I have one final comment here for now about the Ghanaian song "Sansa Kroma":

The fact that some of the Akan totems are hawks, and falcons prompted my speculation about possible symbolical meaning/s of the orphaned hawk in the "Sansa Kroma" children's game song. Perhaps that song does just mean what most people say it means: i.e. that Akan children were assured that if they were ever orphaned they wouldn't have to fend for themselves like the young hawk had to. Yet, even before I learned about the presence of hawk and falcon totems among the Akan, that meaning sounded too "pat" to me. I wonder if this is a long accepted* meaning of what may have been a song with deeper, spiritual, or at least symbolical meaning.

*I'm not sure about the age of this song. One commenter on a YouTube thread [whose link I didn't document] indicated that her grandmother [presumably from Ghana] sung this song in the 1930s.

The "Let Your Voice Be Heard" book that is referenced in the previous posts may be one reason why this song is known to children and adults in the USA and in other nations outside of Ghana, and the continent of Africa. Another reason is one cited in that teacher's blog which was also previously mentioned is that "Sansa Kroma" is (or was)included in the grade 5 Silver Burdett Music book under the title
"Sasa Akroma".

Again, if interested, check out my posts on "Sansa Kroma" on my Pancocojams cultural blog.

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Also, my thanks to all who have posted to this thread since I stopped regularly posting on Mudcat. Particular thanks to Guest iyailu.com for the correction of the lyrics to "Ise Oluwa" in August 2010. That poster gave a website address. The link to that website is http://www.iyailu.com/.   

I intend to visit that site and its blog.

I wasn't aware of that site when I published a series of posts on the African song "Ise Oluwa" and related songs. For those who may be interested, here are links to two of those posts: http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/01/various-interpretations-of-ise-oluwa.html and http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/01/baba-ese-you-are-pillar-that-holds-my.html.

Thanks, and best wishes,

Azizi Powell