Oral Literature in Africa (4 page)

One of the most famous passages in my original work was its short two-page note, extending from pages 108 to 110, on what turned out to be the uncontrollably emotive subject of epic. This, incredibly, has attracted more debate, criticism and, dare I say it, misunderstanding than the rest of the book put together—the more hyped up perhaps to market the book as a stimulating student text. Many must have been the essays and examination answers written to test students’ mastery of the debate, with, no doubt, expected and well-rehearsed answers! I hope the assertions in this new Preface can form the occasion for others in the future. In the light of what was then known I do not think I was wrong to express my frank opinion in the 1960s. In fact I am proud to have had the honesty and clarity to pen it and to have lived to see the outcomes in the intervening years.
³

Much has happened since then. Multiple epics have been collected—or at least
lengthy poetic texts that can be so described—from many places in Africa, most notably ex-French West Africa. Collections, anthologies, translations and annotated texts abound. Epic now has its place in the corpus of recognised African literature, routing the once-predominance of prose forms, the more firmly established as an unquestioned African form through film and broadcast representation. The controversy—one I have always been glad to start off (as I learned in my Oxford days, debate is what gives a subject life)—has been productive indeed, not least in encouraging greater critical scrutiny of the term (notably in Derive 2002) and the challenge, led by Isidore Okpewho (1979), to the once taken-for-granted, but in practice typographically and culturally constructed, of the apparent distinction between prose and poetry, a re-assessment which has had such valuable implications for the study of more obviously ‘written’ literatures.

Other topics where to an extent I risked my neck, deliberately so, have disappointingly attracted less interest. Few scholars have taken up my provocative remarks about myth (though I welcome Isidore Okpewho’s typically well-documented
Myth in Africa,
1983) and drama (see Breitinger 1994, Conteh-Morgan and Olanyan 1999). Let me offer them up as hostages to fortune and suggest that these topics too might relay further critical investigation. There will almost certainly be other possible misconceptions, as yet unnoticed by myself, which I can only leave the diligent reader to winkle out.

It will doubtless be clear to any careful reader of the first edition that I am sceptical about the idea of inevitable progress. I am therefore immensely glad to see that one of the great changes since I first wrote is our increasing awareness and, no doubt causally related to this, technological capture, of the multisensory nature of human artistry. This must surely be noted as one of the great advances of the last generation of scholars, aided but not dictated by new technological devices. We can now document sound, music, dance, movement and colour, and draw on brilliant many-sided resources to experience them, not least in the webpages the publishers are so illuminatingly adding to their print texts. By now we can gather to oral literature forms that would once have been ruled out as imported or ‘hybrid’—the
bandiri
Sokoto group, for instance, in which solo male-voice performances accompanied by drums and a singing chorus blend standard Islamic vocabulary with a delivery style reminiscent of both praise singers and Indian film song, at once local and transnational (Bubu and Furniss 1999: 30); film representations of Sunjata and similar narratives (Hale 2003, Jorholt 2001);
Zulu radio drama (Gunner 2000); or the 1998 CD by the Xhosa praise poet Zolani Mkiva set to contemporary hip-hop in a mixture of Xhosa and English (Kaschula 1999: 62, 2003). All these by now seem as relevant as those gathered in the first edition of this volume from the poetry and stories documented by nineteenth and early twentieth-century scholars.

And alongside this too we must welcome with relief the move towards the appreciation of performance which has given us so much more rounded an understanding of the multidimensional arts of African, and not just African, expression—and not just oral either. I think I can claim to have anticipated a little of this a generation ago, one reason perhaps for my book having received such a happy reception and circulated so long in African circles and student courses (would that these might be resumed, now with new resources). The rediscovery of performance alongside a reverence for text is one of the great developments since the 1960s. Long may it continue, tempered as it must be by the respect for the textual formulations of humankind which give them presence and resonance.

One of the defects of the original volume, to modern eyes at any rate, was its lack of illustrations. So on that note can I add that not the least among the advantages of the forward-looking Cambridge publishers who are producing this book is their multi-media resources, too small alas in my case but, I hope, growing as the years develop and scholars around the world add their materials. Let me at the same time note the lovely cover image which I hope may have attracted you—including I hope some new readers—to the book in the first place. I hope that that beautiful image, found by Jean Derive in a doctoral thesis and ultimately of provenance we know not what, will go some way to drawing attention to the genre of epic, making some small amends for its neglect in my first attempt.

May I end on a shamelessly immodest note. I was quite surprised going through the text of this book to find that even now it is still in some ways pushing at the boundaries. That is perhaps what the study of African oral literature, inspiring and challenging as it still is, can do for a scholar. With its need for the humanistic approach of textual reverence working alongside a social scientist’s touch of cynicism we are inevitably brought face-to-face with its changing and elusive nature, the dissolution of those long-established boundaries of prose and poetry, or of oral against written, collegial versus individual to rediscover the boundless searching paths of the human imagination.

As it has turned out, this has been another supremely happy period in my life. Still feeling well myself while dubbed ill by doctors, friends and family, I have spent two blissful months engaged in this work following my two weeks in hospital earlier in the summer. Guarded lovingly by a glowingly-content husband and constant care from dear family and friends, I have felt better than for years, and luxuriated in the small but time-consuming tasks of finishing this edition—now to be consigned to the tender inspired care of the team at Open Book Publishers. As the ancients used to say, ‘Go on your way little book, and may the gods go with you’.

Old Bletchley, UK, August 2011

Footnotes

1
   Such as Barber and Farias 1989, Bauman 1977, 1992, 2012, Bauman and Sherzer 1974–1989, Baumgardt and Bornand 2009a, 2009b, Ben-Amos and Goldstein 1975, Dégh 1995, Drewal 1991, Foley 2002, Hanks 1996, Harding 2002, Honko 2000, Hughes-Freeland 1998, Hymes 1996, Mannheim and Tedlock 1995, Okpewho 1992, Paredes and Bauman 1972, Schechner 2002, Scheub 1977, Tedlock 1983.

2
   To mention just some of the more general publications and surveys (the specialised monographs are legion): Abrahams 1983, Andrzejweski et al. 1985, Appiah and Gates 2005, Barber 1995, 1997
a
,
b
, 2006, 2007, Barber and Farias 1989, Barber et al. 1997, 1999, Baumgardt 2002, Baumgardt and Bounfour 2000, Baumgardt and Derive 2008, Belcher 1999, Belmont and Calame-Griaule 1998, Ben-Amos 1983, Breitinger 1994, Brown 1999, Conteh-Morgan and Olanyan 1999, Coulon and Garnier, 2011, Dauphin-Tinturier A-M. and Derive 2005, Derive 2002, Diagne 2005, Ezeigbo and Gunner 1991, Fardon and Furniss 2000, Fedry, J., 2010, Finnegan 2010c, Furniss and Gunner 1995, Gérard 1981, 1990, 1996, Görög-Karady 1981, 1982, 1984, 1992, Gunner 1994, Hale 1998, Harding 2002, Haring 1994, Irele and Gikandi 2004, Johnson et al. 1997, Jones et al. 1992, Kaschula 2001, Kawada 1998, Kesteloot 1993, 2004, Kesteloot and Dieng 1997, Kubik 1977, Leguy 2001, Lindfors 1977, Mapanje and White 1983, Mboyo 1986, Mölhlig et al 1988, Mulokozi 2002, Newell 2002, Ngandu Nkashama 1992, Okpewho 1979, 1983, 1990, 1992, 2003, 2004
a
,
b
, Orwin and Topan 2001, Peek and Yankah 2004, Prahlad 2005, Ricard 2004, Ricard and Swanapoel 1997, Ricard and Veit-Wild 2005, Riesz and Ricard 1990, Scheub 1977, 1985, 2002, 2005, Schipper 2000, Seydou et al. 1997, Tarsitani 2010, Vail and White 1991, White et al. 2001. See also general references and websites at the end of this volume

3
   On epic and
épopée
see further the collections, overviews and/or bibliographies in Barry 2011, Baumgardt and Roulon-Doko 2010, Belcher 1999, Ben-Amos 1983, Biebuyck and Mateene 2002, Bornand 2005, Derive 2002, Derive and Dumestre 1999, Innes 1974, 1976, Kesteloot and Dieng 1997, Johnson, Hale and Belcher 1997, Martin et al. 2008, Mbondé Moangué 2005, Okpewho 1979, 1983, 1990, 1992, Seydou 1972, 2004, Towo Atangana and Abomo-Maurin 2009; also—to cite only a small fraction of the burgeoning and varied work—Austen 1999, Baumgardt 2002, Belcher 2004, Belinga 1977, Bird 1972, Clark 1977, Conrad 2004, Diabate 1995, Diop 2004, Gayibor 1983, Hale 1998, Haring 2012, Jansen 2001
a
,
b
, Johnson 2003, 2004, Keesteloot 1989, 1993
b
, Kesteloot and Dumestre 1975, Ly 1991, Meyer 1991, Mulokozi 2002, Ndong Ndoutoume 1970, Okpewho 2003, Pepper and Wolf 1972, Seydou, C., 2008, 2010
a
,
b
, Stone 1988, Thoyer 1995, Traoré 2000.

Acknowledgements

I have many thanks to express. All the editors of the ‘Oxford Library of African Literature’, E. E. Evans-Pritchard, R. G. Lienhardt and Wilfred Whiteley, have helped me in many ways; in particular Wilfred Whiteley has worked through the whole book and made many helpful suggestions and criticisms; his serial letters on the subject over several months were a highlight of 1967–78 and I am more grateful to him than I can say. The following have also read and commented on parts of the book: Dr. G. Innes, Mr. D. K. Rycroft and Mrs. Agnes Finnegan. I have greatly appreciated and profited from their advice (even where I have not taken all of it). I have also had a number of most helpful discussions with Mr. Robin Horton and with my husband, Dr. David Murray. I have obviously used the writings of a great number of people, but would like to mention in particular the stimulus I have received from work by Bascom, Berry, Bowra, Babalola, and, above all, Nketia; I have not always agreed with them or even referred much directly to their work, but have constantly found them illuminating. Finally, the dedication is a serious one. Anything that is of interest in this book is ultimately due to the many people over many years who have taught me—and I do not mean only those who have taught me about Africa or about anthropology.

I would also like to thank the staff of libraries where I have collected the material used here: especially the library of the (then) University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (in particular for allowing me access to the Doke Collection of works on Bantu studies); the library of the University of Ibadan (especially the Africana and reference librarians); and the library of the Institute of Social Anthropology, Oxford. I am also most grateful to the Institute of African Studies, Ibadan, for a grant towards the cost of obtaining photocopies of articles not locally available.

I would like to thank the following authors and publishers for permission to quote from the published works mentioned:

Mr. Wande Abimbola (The Odu of Ifa,
African Notes
1, 3, 1964).

Oba Adetoyese Laoye I, The Timi of Ede (
The orikis of 13 of the Timis of Ede, 1965
).

Dr. Ethel M. Albert and the American Anthropological Association (‘Rhetoric’, ‘logic’, and ‘poetics’ in Burundi, reproduced by permission of the American Anthropological Association from the
American Anthropologist,
vol. 66, no. 6, Pt. 2 (1964), pp. 35–54).

Professor R. G. Armstrong (Talking drums in the Benue-Cross River region of Nigeria,
Phylon
15, 1954).

Professor William Bascom (The sanctions of Ifa divination,
JRAI
71, 1941; The forms of folklore: prose narratives,
JAF
78, 1965).

Professor Robin Horton and the International African Institute (The Kalahari
Ekine
society: a borderland of religion and art,
Africa
33, 1963).

Abbé Alexis Kagame (
La poésie dynastique au Rwanda,
Institut royal colonial beige, Mem. 22, 1, 1951).

Professor E. J. Krige and Shuter and Shooter (Pty.) Ltd. (
The social system of the Zulus,
1936).

Mr. L. S. B. Leakey and Methuen & Company Ltd. (
Defeating Mau Mau,
1954).

Mbari publications (B. Gbadamosi and U. Beier,
Yoruba poetry,
1959; H. Owuor, Luo songs,
Black Orpheus
19, 1961).

Professor J. H. Nketia (
Funeral dirges of the Akan people,
1955;
Akan poetry, Black Orpheus
3, 1958; Drum proverbs,
Voices of Ghana,
Accra, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, 1958;
African music in Ghana,
1962;
Drumming in Akan communities of Ghana
, 1963).

Professor Willard Rhodes (Music as an agent of political expression,
African studies bulletin
5, 2, 1962).

Professor M. G. Smith and the International African Institute (The social functions and meaning of Hausa praise-singing,
Africa
27, 1957).

Father F. Theuws (
Textes Luba,
Bulletin du centre d’étude des problèmes sociaux indigenes (C.E.P.S.I.) 27, 1954).

Dr. Hugh Tracey (
‘Lalela Zulu’, 100 Zulu lyrics,
1948).

Professor A. N. Tucker (Children’s games and songs in the Southern Sudan,
JRAI
63, 1933).

M. Pierre Verger (
Notes sur le culte des Orisa,
Mem.
IFAN
51, 1957).

Witwatersrand University Press (extracts from the following articles in
Bantu studies
and
African studies
on the pages mentioned: E. W. Grant, The Izibongo of the Zulu chiefs,
Bantu studies
13, 1927–9, pp. 211–3, 227; S. K. Lekgothoane, Praises of animals in Northern Sotho,
Bantu studies
12, 1938, pp. 193–5; P. A. W. Cook, History and Izibongo of the Swazi chiefs,
Bantu studies
5, 1931, p. 193; F. Laydevant, The praises of the divining bones among the Basotho,
Bantu studies
7, 1933, pp. 349–50, 361, 369–70, 371; M. Read, Songs of the Ngoni people,
Bantu studies
11, 1937, pp. 14–15, 16,
25,
30; B. Stefaniszyn, The hunting songs of the Ambo,
African studies
10, 1951, pp. 4, 6, 7, 9, 11; C. Cagnolo, Kikuyu tales,
African studies
11, 1952, pp. 128–9; 12, 1953, pp. 129–30).

‘West Africa’, Orbit House, London, E.C. 4 (R. Schachter, French Guinea’s R.D.A. folk songs,
West African review
29, 1958).

I am also indebted to the Delegates of the Oxford University Press to quote from works published in the ‘Oxford Library of African Literature’, and from L. Harries,
Swahili poetry,
1962; R. S. Rattray,
Ashanti,
1923; R. S. Fletcher,
Hausa sayings and folk-lore,
1912; N. Njururi,
Agikuyu folk tales,
1966; H. Tracey,
Chopi musicians,
1948.

I am also most grateful to the following for permission to quote from various unpublished sources:

The Library, University College of Rhodesia (manuscripts in the Doke Collection).

Mr. David Rycroft (personal communication quoted in Chapter 5).

University of the Witwatersrand (S. M. Mofokeng, ‘Notes and annotations of the praise-poems of certain chiefs and the structure of the praise-poems in Southern Sotho’, unpub. honours thesis, 1945).