Oral traditions and the written word

To be sure, the Arabic, English, French, and Portuguese literary traditions along with
Christianity and Islam and other effects of colonialism in Africa also had a dynamic
impact on African literature, but African writers adapted those alien traditions and made
them their own by placing them into these African classical frames.

History and myth

As is the case with the oral tradition, written literature is a combination of the real and
the fantastic. It combines, on the one hand, the real (the contemporary world) and
history (the realistic world of the past) and, on the other, myth and hero, with metaphor
being the agent of transformation.
The writer is examining the relationship of the reader with the world and with history
At the centre of the story is myth, the fantasy element, a character or event that moves
beyond reality, though it is always rooted in the real. In the oral tale this is clearly the
fantasy character; so it is, in a complex, refracted way, in written literature.
In mythic imagery is the embodiment of significant emotions—the hopes, fears, dreams,
and nightmares—of a people
History—the story of a people, their institutions, and their community—is the way one
likes to think things happened, in the real world
The image of Africa, then, is that rich combination of myth and history, with the hero
embodying the essence of the history, or battling it, or somehow having a relationship
with it by means of the fantasy mythic character
The fantasy character provides access to history, to the essence of history. It is the
explanation of the historical background of the novels.

The influence of oral traditions on modern writers

Themes in the literary traditions of contemporary Africa are worked out frequently within
the strictures laid down by the imported religions Christianity and Islam and within the
struggle between traditional and modern, between rural and newly urban, between
genders, and between generations
The oral tradition is clearly evident in the popular literature of the marketplace and the
major urban centres, created by literary storytellers who are manipulating the original
materials much as oral storytellers do, at the same time remaining faithful to the
tradition
There was a clear interaction between the deeply rooted oral tradition and the
developing literary traditions of the 20th century.

African literature Language

Ethiopian (13th century)

Ethiopian literatures are composed in several languages Geʿez, Amharic, Tigrinya,
Tigré, Oromo, and Harari. But most literary works were Ge’ez and Amharic. It spawns
during very early period, most importantly from the 13th century
The first known work was “The Kebra nagast” (Glory of Kings), written from 1314 to
1322, relates the birth of Menelik—the son of Solomon and Makada, the queen of
Sheba—who became the king of Ethiopia
Amharic became widespread when it was used for political and religious purposes to
reach a larger part of the population. And at the end of the 19th century, missionaries
brought the printing press to Ethiopia
World War II, important writers continued to compose works in Amharic

Hausa (14th or 15th century)

It is possible that written Hausa goes back as far as the 14th or 15th century
The first novels written in Hausa were the result of a competition launched in 1933 by
the Translation Bureau in northern Nigeria
At the beginning of the 19th century, the Hausa language was written in an Arabic script
called ajami
In 1903, under the influence of the British, the Latin alphabet was added
Islamic Hausa poetry was a continuation of Arabic classical poetry
Religious and secular poetry continued through the 20th century
Religious and didactic poetry continue to be written among the Hausa.
Hausa drama has been influenced by the oral tradition
Shona (1956)
a historical novel Feso, was the first literary work to be published in Shona during 1956
the attempt to remain true to Shona tradition, the breaking down of Shona culture, the
ugly aspects of Western ideas, and the Christian who attempts to blend past and
present, are mostly theme used at Shona
In the latter, the corrosive effects of colonialism on Shona tradition are dramatized.

Somali (1956)
Poetry is a major form of expression in the Somali oral tradition
The first known literary work from Somali was dated during 1956
Somalian literature has different types include the gabay, usually chanted, the jiifto, also
chanted and usually moody, the geeraar, short and dealing with war, the buraambur,
composed by women, the heello, or balwo, made up of short love poems and popular
on the radio, and the hees, popular poetry
Drama has also flourished in the Somali language, and here, as in the language’s other
written forms, the oral tradition continues to have a dynamic influence

Southern Sotho (1893) SUTU

The first writer in the Southern Sotho language was Azariele M. Sekese dated during
1893
The conflict between Sotho tradition and the West, including Christianity, can be found
in a number of Sotho works

Swahili (1858) https://www.agefotostock.com/age/en/Stock-Images/swahili-

manuscript-in-arabic-script.html
Swahili literature is usually divided into classical and contemporary periods and genres
There were early historical works, such as Tarekhe ya Pate (“The Pate Chronicle”);
reassembled by the 19th-century scholar Fumo Omar al-Nabhani, it describes events
from the 13th to the 19th century
Popular newspaper fiction was a major source of literary storytelling during the 20th
century
Xhosa (19th century) kowsa ensikana
https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/307441112043950381/
The first piece of Xhosa writing was a hymn written in the early 19th century by Ntsikana
African protest, which was not allowed in works published by the mission presses, was
heard in the journals.
(Indeed, many early writers of prose and verse had Christian backgrounds that were the
result of their having attended missionary schools, and so shared Jolobe’s thematic
concerns.)

Yoruba (1938) https://omniglot.com/writing/oduduwa.htm

There are two competing strands in Yoruba literature, one influenced by the rich Yoruba
oral tradition, the other receiving its impetus from the West
The history of Yoruba literature moves between these forces

Zulu (19th and early 20th centuries)

http://www.worldlanguage.com/Languages/Zulu.htm
Like most other African literatures, Zulu literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries
falls into two distinct categories, one concerned with traditional (Zulu) life and customs,
the other with Christianity
These early Zulu writers were amassing the raw materials with which the modern Zulu
novel would be built. Christian influence from abroad would combine with the
techniques of traditional Zulu oral traditions to create this new form
At the heart of Zulu literature of the 20th century is oral tradition
Zulu literature owes something to influences from the West, but the indigenous oral
tradition is dominant
Zulu poetry varies widely, from imitating ancient Zulu poetic forms to analyzing the
system of apartheid that dominated life in South Africa during the 20th century
https://www.africanbudgetsafaris.com/blog/african-tribes-african-culture-and-african-traditions/

(HAUSA) ajami. https://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=language_detail_sym&key=hau

(HAUSA) Oral Tradition https://educatingheartsblog.wordpress.com/2017/02/04/oral-story-telling-

zulekhas-story/

https://rachelstrohm.com/2019/04/27/writing-systems-across-africa/
https://www.ibnibnbattuta.com/2010/02/amharic-language-apart-from-land-apart.html

http://www.eritrea.be/old/eritrea-languages.htm

http://worldbibles.org/language_detail/eng/tig/Tigre

https://omniglot.com/writing/oromo.htm

https://journals.openedition.org/afriques/2052

https://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=language_detail_sym&key=hau

https://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/201105/from.africa.in.ajami.htm

https://www.nairaland.com/2920650/examples-hausa-ajami-script

http://www.worldlanguage.com/Languages/Shona.htm

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Gadabuursi_Somali_Script

https://omniglot.com/writing/sesotho.htm
Riddle
the riddle is composed of two sets, and, during the process of riddling, the aspects of
each of the sets are transferred to the other. On the surface it appears that the riddle is
largely an intellectual rather than a poetic activity. But through its imagery and the
tension between the two sets, the imagination of the audience is also engaged. As they
seek the solution to the riddle, the audience itself becomes a part of the images and
therefore—and most significantly—of the metaphorical transformation.

The lyric
The images in African lyric interact in dynamic fashion, establishing metaphorical
relationships within the poem, and so it is that riddling is the motor of the lyric. And, as
in riddles, so also in lyric: metaphor frequently involves and invokes paradox. In the
lyric, it is as if the singer were stitching a set of riddles into a single richly textured poem,
the series of riddling connections responsible for the ultimate experience of the poem.
The singer organizes and controls the emotions of the audience as he systematically
works his way through the levels of the poem, carefully establishing the connective
threads that bring the separate metaphorical sets into the poem’s totality. As these
riddling relationships interact and interweave, the poet brings the audience to a close,
intense sense of the meaning of the poem

The proverb
The African proverb seems initially to be a hackneyed expression, a trite leftover
repeated until it loses all force. But proverb is also performance, it is also metaphor, and
it is in its performance and metaphorical aspects that it achieves its power. In one
sense, the experience of a proverb is similar to that of a riddle and a lyric poem:
different images are brought into a relationship that is novel, that provides insight. When
one experiences proverbs in appropriate contexts, rather than in isolation, they come to
life. The words of the proverb are by themselves only one part of the metaphorical
experience
DAVE
Introduction
Overview
Oral traditions
History and myth

DBORA
The nature of storytelling
The riddle
The lyric
The proverb

JOAN
Africa by David Diop (Poem)
The tale
Heroic poetry
The epic

ROIY
Literatures in African languages
Ethiopian,Hausa,Shona,Somali,Southern Sotho,SwahiliXhosa,Yoruba
and Zulu.

IVY
Dead Men's Path by Chinua Achebe (Poem)
Oral traditions and the written word
The influence of oral traditions on modern writers

David Mandessi Diop (1927-1960) was a revolutionary African poet born in france
His poem highlightesd problems of Africa brought about by colonialism and gave a
message to Africans to bring about change and freedom
Coups de pilon – published collection of poems

Also known for his involvement in the negritude literary movements

Negritude is a framework of critique and literary theory, developed mainly by intellectual,
writters and politicians of the Africa during the 1930s
Aimed at raising and cultivating black consciousness across Africa and its dispora