In this article I deal with the problem of division into genres and genre designation in the oral tradition of the Bamana, Maninka, and Dyula. These people belong to the Manden or Mandinka, Mandingo peoples (Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso). For comparison, the names of similar genres among the Dogon are also given, as the Dogon consider themselves a Manden people, even though their languages do not belong to the Mandé language family. Both expeditionary materials and written sources were used. Almost all the words related to genre formation were recorded, and a description of the genres themselves was given. It was interesting to understand what features are important for choosing genres for Manden peoples. Due to cultural characteristics and historical development, the generally accepted division into genres is not entirely suitable for the Manden peoples and forms a “Procrustean bed” for their subdivision. First of all, the degree of ‘seriousness’ of the genre is important, that is, its significance for tradition: ‘true’ texts are opposed to fictional ones. The degree of rituality of the folklore text is also significant. Restrictions on the performance of texts are associated with the ability to control the occult power of nyama energy. An important role in this is played by the presence of the griot tradition. Also, a formal feature plays a role in defining various folklore genres.
{"title":"Folklore genre designation among the Manden peoples","authors":"Olga Zavyalova","doi":"10.17159/tl.v60i3.14401","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/tl.v60i3.14401","url":null,"abstract":"In this article I deal with the problem of division into genres and genre designation in the oral tradition of the Bamana, Maninka, and Dyula. These people belong to the Manden or Mandinka, Mandingo peoples (Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso). For comparison, the names of similar genres among the Dogon are also given, as the Dogon consider themselves a Manden people, even though their languages do not belong to the Mandé language family. Both expeditionary materials and written sources were used. Almost all the words related to genre formation were recorded, and a description of the genres themselves was given. It was interesting to understand what features are important for choosing genres for Manden peoples. Due to cultural characteristics and historical development, the generally accepted division into genres is not entirely suitable for the Manden peoples and forms a “Procrustean bed” for their subdivision. First of all, the degree of ‘seriousness’ of the genre is important, that is, its significance for tradition: ‘true’ texts are opposed to fictional ones. The degree of rituality of the folklore text is also significant. Restrictions on the performance of texts are associated with the ability to control the occult power of nyama energy. An important role in this is played by the presence of the griot tradition. Also, a formal feature plays a role in defining various folklore genres.","PeriodicalId":41787,"journal":{"name":"Tydskrif vir letterkunde","volume":"21 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139005193","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Recent studies on language and gender that focus on songs and beer drinking sessions within the context of the Bukusu circumcision ceremony have shown that language is gendered and that it espouses male gender. Against this backdrop, in this study we aim to denaturalise this view by focussing on conversations within the circumcision ceremony. By using theoretical and methodological principles from critical discourse and conversation analysis in particular, we argue that, by using linguistic strategies, traditional gender roles are not only discursively highlighted but they are also negotiated and even resisted. This study falls within recent discussions in critical discourse analysis that have shown that language masks asymmetrical power relations on the one hand, and within postcolonial studies that have shown that gender discourses can reflect collisions between differing points of views on the other hand. The data used in this study is four audio recordings of conversations that took place alongside the main ceremony. This data has been analysed at the level of content and prosodic organisation to identify discursive practices that reveal the negotiation and contestation of gender roles. The study contributes to recent discussions in critical discourse analysis by exposing gender asymmetries and contestations that lie behind ‘taken-for-granted’ realities, with specific examples from the postcolonial context of the Bukusu circumcision ceremony.
{"title":"Gender and power as negotiated in Bukusu circumcision ceremonies","authors":"S. N. Wabende, Simon Nganga Wanjala","doi":"10.17159/tl.v60i3.14504","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/tl.v60i3.14504","url":null,"abstract":"Recent studies on language and gender that focus on songs and beer drinking sessions within the context of the Bukusu circumcision ceremony have shown that language is gendered and that it espouses male gender. Against this backdrop, in this study we aim to denaturalise this view by focussing on conversations within the circumcision ceremony. By using theoretical and methodological principles from critical discourse and conversation analysis in particular, we argue that, by using linguistic strategies, traditional gender roles are not only discursively highlighted but they are also negotiated and even resisted. This study falls within recent discussions in critical discourse analysis that have shown that language masks asymmetrical power relations on the one hand, and within postcolonial studies that have shown that gender discourses can reflect collisions between differing points of views on the other hand. The data used in this study is four audio recordings of conversations that took place alongside the main ceremony. This data has been analysed at the level of content and prosodic organisation to identify discursive practices that reveal the negotiation and contestation of gender roles. The study contributes to recent discussions in critical discourse analysis by exposing gender asymmetries and contestations that lie behind ‘taken-for-granted’ realities, with specific examples from the postcolonial context of the Bukusu circumcision ceremony.","PeriodicalId":41787,"journal":{"name":"Tydskrif vir letterkunde","volume":"52 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139003718","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Despite technological innovations, orality still forms one of the aesthetic elements in the new media such as home video films as a result of the unending interface between orality and the literacy tradition. Using intertextuality as an approach, in this article I examine orality in selected films of Akínwùmí Ìṣọ̀lá, with a view to showing how he uses verbal arts as a powerful tool for the transmission of cultural values. The selected films are Saworoidẹ (1999), Agogo Èèwọ̀ (2002) and Ẹfúnṣetán Aníwúrà (2005). The films were selected based on their preponderant featuring of oral narratives. My findings reveal that folktales, legends, songs, Ifá corpus, drumbeats, incantations, and panegyric are the Yorùbá oral genres that Akínwùmí Ìṣọ̀lá incorporates into his films. One can infer from Ìṣọ̀lá’s films that there is an overlap between his oral culture and his creative work because culture is the active force that energises and drives the creative work. I conclude that Ìṣọ̀lá uses his creative ingenuity to re-awake and preserve Yorùbá oral tradition in his films, which points to the fact that oral literature has a continued vitality for contemporary society.
{"title":"Orality in Yorùbá films: A study of selected films of Akínwùmí Iṣọ̀lá","authors":"A. Bolarinwa","doi":"10.17159/tl.v60i3.14418","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/tl.v60i3.14418","url":null,"abstract":"Despite technological innovations, orality still forms one of the aesthetic elements in the new media such as home video films as a result of the unending interface between orality and the literacy tradition. Using intertextuality as an approach, in this article I examine orality in selected films of Akínwùmí Ìṣọ̀lá, with a view to showing how he uses verbal arts as a powerful tool for the transmission of cultural values. The selected films are Saworoidẹ (1999), Agogo Èèwọ̀ (2002) and Ẹfúnṣetán Aníwúrà (2005). The films were selected based on their preponderant featuring of oral narratives. My findings reveal that folktales, legends, songs, Ifá corpus, drumbeats, incantations, and panegyric are the Yorùbá oral genres that Akínwùmí Ìṣọ̀lá incorporates into his films. One can infer from Ìṣọ̀lá’s films that there is an overlap between his oral culture and his creative work because culture is the active force that energises and drives the creative work. I conclude that Ìṣọ̀lá uses his creative ingenuity to re-awake and preserve Yorùbá oral tradition in his films, which points to the fact that oral literature has a continued vitality for contemporary society.","PeriodicalId":41787,"journal":{"name":"Tydskrif vir letterkunde","volume":"33 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139003536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Music is an indispensable tool of cultural transmission. Considering the vast nature of oral traditions, of which indigenous music is encapsulated, many studies on Nigerian indigenous music have concentrated on Jùjú, Ìjálá, Dadakúàdà, Ẹ̀sà, and Àpàlà. However, much research still needs to be done on Gospel Àpàlà, a variant of Traditional Àpàlà which was popularised by Hárúnà Ìshọ̀lá and Àyìnlá Ọmọwúrà, noted for its highly proverbial folklore, blended with percussive instruments of which dùndún drum and ṣẹ̀kẹ̀rẹ̀ play leading roles to give aesthetic appeal. In this research, therefore, I investigate and document Gospel Àpàlà as it translates from traditional Àpàlà into praise and worship of God, in order to identify and describe its unique style and communicative functions, especially in these changing times of modernisation and globalisation. Drawing on systemic functional linguistics and sociology of literature, in this article I provide an analysis and interpretation of six Àpàlà Gospel songs from three Àpàlà Gospel artistes: Ṣadé Ọ̀ṣọbà, Yọ̀mí Ọlábísí, and Boiz Ọlọ́run. I portray the relevance of Àpàlà music both in Christian worship and events and gathering. Themes in Àpàlà Gospel include praises, thanksgiving and adoration to God, salvation/acknowledging Jesus, God’s greatness and miracles, forgiveness, unity, holiness, heaven, love among brethren, commitment, and dedication to God’s work. My findings reveal, among others, that Gospel Àpàlà music encapsulates indigenous knowledge contained in oral literature. I identify stylistic devices such as repetition, rhetorical question, personification, loan words, code-mixing/code-switching, and proverbs which garnish the metamorphosed music and conclude that Àpàlà has metamorphosed from traditional Àpàlà into Gospel Christian worship.
{"title":"Gospel Àpàlà music in African Christian worship: Thematic and stylistic analysis","authors":"Esther Titilayo Òjó","doi":"10.17159/tl.v60i3.14469","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/tl.v60i3.14469","url":null,"abstract":"Music is an indispensable tool of cultural transmission. Considering the vast nature of oral traditions, of which indigenous music is encapsulated, many studies on Nigerian indigenous music have concentrated on Jùjú, Ìjálá, Dadakúàdà, Ẹ̀sà, and Àpàlà. However, much research still needs to be done on Gospel Àpàlà, a variant of Traditional Àpàlà which was popularised by Hárúnà Ìshọ̀lá and Àyìnlá Ọmọwúrà, noted for its highly proverbial folklore, blended with percussive instruments of which dùndún drum and ṣẹ̀kẹ̀rẹ̀ play leading roles to give aesthetic appeal. In this research, therefore, I investigate and document Gospel Àpàlà as it translates from traditional Àpàlà into praise and worship of God, in order to identify and describe its unique style and communicative functions, especially in these changing times of modernisation and globalisation. Drawing on systemic functional linguistics and sociology of literature, in this article I provide an analysis and interpretation of six Àpàlà Gospel songs from three Àpàlà Gospel artistes: Ṣadé Ọ̀ṣọbà, Yọ̀mí Ọlábísí, and Boiz Ọlọ́run. I portray the relevance of Àpàlà music both in Christian worship and events and gathering. Themes in Àpàlà Gospel include praises, thanksgiving and adoration to God, salvation/acknowledging Jesus, God’s greatness and miracles, forgiveness, unity, holiness, heaven, love among brethren, commitment, and dedication to God’s work. My findings reveal, among others, that Gospel Àpàlà music encapsulates indigenous knowledge contained in oral literature. I identify stylistic devices such as repetition, rhetorical question, personification, loan words, code-mixing/code-switching, and proverbs which garnish the metamorphosed music and conclude that Àpàlà has metamorphosed from traditional Àpàlà into Gospel Christian worship.","PeriodicalId":41787,"journal":{"name":"Tydskrif vir letterkunde","volume":"127 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139003555","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this paper I investigate the state of Hausa children’s folktales and play-songs in Gombe, Nigeria to ascertain whether they (folktales and play-songs of children) are still alive and active in this culturally important town in northern Nigeria. My specific objectives are to examine how much parents and their children know of Hausa children’s folktales and play-songs and argue that folktales and play-songs are to some extent infused with modern technologies because of globalisation and that mass media has taken over the dissemination of such cultures. To achieve this aim, I employ questionnaires as the instrument of data collection. The subjects for the research are 150 parents and their school-going and out-of-school children aged 20-above and 0–10 respectively. Arguing that globalisation impacts the oral transmission of cultural knowledge more than ever, I adopt technauriture and cultauriture as the theoretical models. Analysis of the data reveals a more than 90% awareness of folktales and play-songs from all respondents. However, some school-going children prefer to watch such oral traditions via satellite rather than listening to a narration as it enhances their language development and nurtures and preserves culture using the paradigm of technology with audio-visual media. The out-of-school children, on the other hand, listen to the narration but are not captivated by it because it only uses the oral means of dissemination. They prefer to watch television and play video games as this educates and entertains using technology, orality, and visuals.
{"title":"The state of Hausa children’s folktales and play-songs in Gombe, Nigeria","authors":"Bilkisu Abubakar Arabi","doi":"10.17159/tl.v60i3.14451","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/tl.v60i3.14451","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper I investigate the state of Hausa children’s folktales and play-songs in Gombe, Nigeria to ascertain whether they (folktales and play-songs of children) are still alive and active in this culturally important town in northern Nigeria. My specific objectives are to examine how much parents and their children know of Hausa children’s folktales and play-songs and argue that folktales and play-songs are to some extent infused with modern technologies because of globalisation and that mass media has taken over the dissemination of such cultures. To achieve this aim, I employ questionnaires as the instrument of data collection. The subjects for the research are 150 parents and their school-going and out-of-school children aged 20-above and 0–10 respectively. Arguing that globalisation impacts the oral transmission of cultural knowledge more than ever, I adopt technauriture and cultauriture as the theoretical models. Analysis of the data reveals a more than 90% awareness of folktales and play-songs from all respondents. However, some school-going children prefer to watch such oral traditions via satellite rather than listening to a narration as it enhances their language development and nurtures and preserves culture using the paradigm of technology with audio-visual media. The out-of-school children, on the other hand, listen to the narration but are not captivated by it because it only uses the oral means of dissemination. They prefer to watch television and play video games as this educates and entertains using technology, orality, and visuals.","PeriodicalId":41787,"journal":{"name":"Tydskrif vir letterkunde","volume":"94 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139004240","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Anthony Biwott, Collins Kenga Mumbo, Robert Oduori
Propitiation is part of what it means to be human. Traditionally, propitiation has been studied from a broad sociocultural perspective with little consideration of the performance processes at play. Among the Nandi community in Kenya, propitiatory offering reconciliation forms the core of restoration of inter-communities relationships. It defines and enriches their culture, but what is propitiatory offering reconciliation? How is it performed? Are there any steps followed in its execution? Is there a specific place of performance? In this article we provide a framework to understand the Nandi propitiatory reconciliation through a literary perspective. We expound on the steps followed: investigation, interrogation, and cleansing, and the three features of performance: that is, place of performance, actions and signs, formulaic expression, costumes, and audience. The data collection took place in Kabiyet and Kipkaren Wards in Nandi county and was collected through participatory observation, interviews, and questionnaires. The sample population was 30 adults between the ages of 45–90 years who were selected using purposive and snowball sampling techniques. The data collected on performance in propitiatory reconciliation rites was analysed by use of functionalism theory as expounded by Foley. We found that the stages of propitiatory reconciliation must be religiously adhered to for its effectiveness and that the success of its performance heavily depends on the participation of its performers and audience. This article also brings out performance in form of particular acts, singing, and chanting.
{"title":"Performance in propitiatory reconciliation among the Nandi community","authors":"Anthony Biwott, Collins Kenga Mumbo, Robert Oduori","doi":"10.17159/tl.v60i3.14654","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/tl.v60i3.14654","url":null,"abstract":"Propitiation is part of what it means to be human. Traditionally, propitiation has been studied from a broad sociocultural perspective with little consideration of the performance processes at play. Among the Nandi community in Kenya, propitiatory offering reconciliation forms the core of restoration of inter-communities relationships. It defines and enriches their culture, but what is propitiatory offering reconciliation? How is it performed? Are there any steps followed in its execution? Is there a specific place of performance? In this article we provide a framework to understand the Nandi propitiatory reconciliation through a literary perspective. We expound on the steps followed: investigation, interrogation, and cleansing, and the three features of performance: that is, place of performance, actions and signs, formulaic expression, costumes, and audience. The data collection took place in Kabiyet and Kipkaren Wards in Nandi county and was collected through participatory observation, interviews, and questionnaires. The sample population was 30 adults between the ages of 45–90 years who were selected using purposive and snowball sampling techniques. The data collected on performance in propitiatory reconciliation rites was analysed by use of functionalism theory as expounded by Foley. We found that the stages of propitiatory reconciliation must be religiously adhered to for its effectiveness and that the success of its performance heavily depends on the participation of its performers and audience. This article also brings out performance in form of particular acts, singing, and chanting.","PeriodicalId":41787,"journal":{"name":"Tydskrif vir letterkunde","volume":"25 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139005699","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Among the Teso of Western Kenya, Ekutet (the exhumation ceremony) has for centuries been practised to treat physical, mental, and/or emotional problems. A family’s, or the community’s, persistent misfortunes such as frequent deaths, illnesses, accidents, or unexplained feuds and such other grief causing occurrences may be attributed to an unhappy dead member of the family or community. To correct the situation and bring life back to normal, the unhappy dead member’s bones are exhumed, either for reburial or display in a sacred place. Notably, the ritual is performed to the accompaniment of oral performances, rendered as narrations, incantations, swearing, prayer chants, and occasional re-enactments of attendant dramatic anecdotes. This article is written against the backdrop of the realisation that the Ekutet ritual itself appears to be diminishing, which then raises a pertinent question: What replaces, or has replaced, the role that this highly psychological ritual has usually played in the lives of the Teso people? I interviewed members of the community, while analysing the oral performances incorporated in this socio-cultural cum spiritual endeavour. Due to the fact that the actual ritual has become quite rare, people apparently try to keep it alive by revisiting the memory of the ritual, which they do through re-enactments and mock exhumations. This then also draws attention to the role of memory, narration, and re-enactment in either the resuscitation of, or the reliving of, diminishing ritual practices.
{"title":"Oral performance as substitute for ritual: Ekutet, a Teso exhumation ceremony","authors":"Joseph Muleka","doi":"10.17159/tl.v60i3.14538","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/tl.v60i3.14538","url":null,"abstract":"Among the Teso of Western Kenya, Ekutet (the exhumation ceremony) has for centuries been practised to treat physical, mental, and/or emotional problems. A family’s, or the community’s, persistent misfortunes such as frequent deaths, illnesses, accidents, or unexplained feuds and such other grief causing occurrences may be attributed to an unhappy dead member of the family or community. To correct the situation and bring life back to normal, the unhappy dead member’s bones are exhumed, either for reburial or display in a sacred place. Notably, the ritual is performed to the accompaniment of oral performances, rendered as narrations, incantations, swearing, prayer chants, and occasional re-enactments of attendant dramatic anecdotes. This article is written against the backdrop of the realisation that the Ekutet ritual itself appears to be diminishing, which then raises a pertinent question: What replaces, or has replaced, the role that this highly psychological ritual has usually played in the lives of the Teso people? I interviewed members of the community, while analysing the oral performances incorporated in this socio-cultural cum spiritual endeavour. Due to the fact that the actual ritual has become quite rare, people apparently try to keep it alive by revisiting the memory of the ritual, which they do through re-enactments and mock exhumations. This then also draws attention to the role of memory, narration, and re-enactment in either the resuscitation of, or the reliving of, diminishing ritual practices.","PeriodicalId":41787,"journal":{"name":"Tydskrif vir letterkunde","volume":"278 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139003750","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Transitions, transformations, and translocations of African oral literature in the 21st century","authors":"Tobias Odongo","doi":"10.17159/tl.v60i3.16702","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/tl.v60i3.16702","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41787,"journal":{"name":"Tydskrif vir letterkunde","volume":"13 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139004743","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Death, especially death which comes through disease, is often a hard subject that the human mind wishes to bury deep in the unconscious. The lack of ease with impending death eventually finds expression in everyday discourse. In this paper I look at performance of Covid-19 discourse through humour in a short episode of everyday orality of a Luo community in Uyoma, Siaya, in Kenya. The performance of the everyday language is textualized to display the aesthetics of contextual language through coinage, jokes, and puns, which manifest as humorous responses to an otherwise dire situation. From the feminising of the disease as Acory Nyar China, literally translated as “the petite Cory from China”, to the symbolic naming of aspects of the Covid-19 protocols and verbal jokes about the same, there is an inherent, deliberate attempt to literally laugh in the face of death. The identified aspects of language are treated as metaphorical masks, even as the mask as an object also becomes a metaphor. I employ discourse analysis, which treats language as living social phenomena capable of change, growth, expansion, and adaptation for contextual spatial and temporal expressions.
{"title":"Masking death: Covid-19 inspired humour in the everyday orality of a Luo community in Kenya","authors":"R. Opondo","doi":"10.17159/tl.v60i3.14691","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/tl.v60i3.14691","url":null,"abstract":"Death, especially death which comes through disease, is often a hard subject that the human mind wishes to bury deep in the unconscious. The lack of ease with impending death eventually finds expression in everyday discourse. In this paper I look at performance of Covid-19 discourse through humour in a short episode of everyday orality of a Luo community in Uyoma, Siaya, in Kenya. The performance of the everyday language is textualized to display the aesthetics of contextual language through coinage, jokes, and puns, which manifest as humorous responses to an otherwise dire situation. From the feminising of the disease as Acory Nyar China, literally translated as “the petite Cory from China”, to the symbolic naming of aspects of the Covid-19 protocols and verbal jokes about the same, there is an inherent, deliberate attempt to literally laugh in the face of death. The identified aspects of language are treated as metaphorical masks, even as the mask as an object also becomes a metaphor. I employ discourse analysis, which treats language as living social phenomena capable of change, growth, expansion, and adaptation for contextual spatial and temporal expressions.","PeriodicalId":41787,"journal":{"name":"Tydskrif vir letterkunde","volume":"56 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138976471","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Postcolonial feminism conceptualises the female body as volatile to theorise the inherent vibrant activities of (re)identification of the self from the social masculine inscriptions. In addition to that, the female body is also understood as a subject of conquest in a political struggle to emancipate the self from the instigators of its suppression. Given this, the female body is highly political and attempts to emancipate itself from oppressive patriarchal hegemony. In spite of these efforts by feminist scholars to proclaim the inevitable transfiguration of the female body, and to elucidate a transformation towards autonomy of self, discourse in emerging oral tradition and emerging genres of oral literature in contemporary African societies derail the quest for recreation of an ‘envisioned woman’. In this study I analyse ‘Dhako en’ (a woman is) proverbs among the Luo community of Kenya, and investigate their dominant role in the objectification of the female body in contemporary society. These proverbs were collected from Facebook, and then analysed through a deconstructionist approach and postcolonial feminist theory of sexualised objectification. At the superficial level, ‘Dhako en’ proverbs are supposed to entertain by creating comic relief. I argue that the signified is a woman relegated to a mere object of misappropriation, and that the signifiers embody sexual connotations in the pretext of artful use of words verbally. I conclude that these proverbs become existential threats to the ‘transfiguration’ process of the female body and continue to ‘other’ the image of the woman, complicating the overall feminist struggle.
{"title":"A feminist analysis of ‘Dhako en …’ (A woman is …) proverbs among the Luo community of Kenya","authors":"Daniel Otieno","doi":"10.17159/tl.v60i3.14482","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/tl.v60i3.14482","url":null,"abstract":"Postcolonial feminism conceptualises the female body as volatile to theorise the inherent vibrant activities of (re)identification of the self from the social masculine inscriptions. In addition to that, the female body is also understood as a subject of conquest in a political struggle to emancipate the self from the instigators of its suppression. Given this, the female body is highly political and attempts to emancipate itself from oppressive patriarchal hegemony. In spite of these efforts by feminist scholars to proclaim the inevitable transfiguration of the female body, and to elucidate a transformation towards autonomy of self, discourse in emerging oral tradition and emerging genres of oral literature in contemporary African societies derail the quest for recreation of an ‘envisioned woman’. In this study I analyse ‘Dhako en’ (a woman is) proverbs among the Luo community of Kenya, and investigate their dominant role in the objectification of the female body in contemporary society. These proverbs were collected from Facebook, and then analysed through a deconstructionist approach and postcolonial feminist theory of sexualised objectification. At the superficial level, ‘Dhako en’ proverbs are supposed to entertain by creating comic relief. I argue that the signified is a woman relegated to a mere object of misappropriation, and that the signifiers embody sexual connotations in the pretext of artful use of words verbally. I conclude that these proverbs become existential threats to the ‘transfiguration’ process of the female body and continue to ‘other’ the image of the woman, complicating the overall feminist struggle.","PeriodicalId":41787,"journal":{"name":"Tydskrif vir letterkunde","volume":"10 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139005507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：