Oral Literature of the Maasai

Oral Literature of the Maasai PDF Author: Kipuri, Naomi
Publisher: East African Educational Publishers
ISBN: 9966461736
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
Oral Literature of the Maasai offers an extensive collection of types of oral literature: oral narratives; proverbs; riddles; and a variety of songs for different occasions. The versions in this book were collected by the author from a specific Maasai community in Kajiado County of Kenya. The author listened to many of the narratives and participated in many proverb and riddle telling sessions as she grew up in her Ilbissil village of Kajiado Central Sub-county. However, she recorded most of the examples of oral literature in the early seventies with the help of her mother, who performed the role of the oral artist. Many songs were recorded from live performances. The examples ring with individuality, while also revealing a comprehensive way of life of a people. The images in the literature reveal the concrete life of the Maasai – people living closely with their livestock and engaged in constant struggle with the environment. But like all important literature, the materials here ultimately reveal a people with its moral and spiritual concerns, grappling with questions of human values and relations, struggling for a better social order. This book recommends itself to the general reader. However, the book is more than this: it includes stimulating discussions of examples, as well as review questions and exercises. The book is highly recommended to students of oral literature at secondary school level and at the university.

Oral Literature of the Maasai

Oral Literature of the Maasai PDF Author: Kipuri, Naomi
Publisher: East African Educational Publishers
ISBN: 9966461736
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
Oral Literature of the Maasai offers an extensive collection of types of oral literature: oral narratives; proverbs; riddles; and a variety of songs for different occasions. The versions in this book were collected by the author from a specific Maasai community in Kajiado County of Kenya. The author listened to many of the narratives and participated in many proverb and riddle telling sessions as she grew up in her Ilbissil village of Kajiado Central Sub-county. However, she recorded most of the examples of oral literature in the early seventies with the help of her mother, who performed the role of the oral artist. Many songs were recorded from live performances. The examples ring with individuality, while also revealing a comprehensive way of life of a people. The images in the literature reveal the concrete life of the Maasai – people living closely with their livestock and engaged in constant struggle with the environment. But like all important literature, the materials here ultimately reveal a people with its moral and spiritual concerns, grappling with questions of human values and relations, struggling for a better social order. This book recommends itself to the general reader. However, the book is more than this: it includes stimulating discussions of examples, as well as review questions and exercises. The book is highly recommended to students of oral literature at secondary school level and at the university.

Oral Literature of the Luo

Oral Literature of the Luo PDF Author: Simon Okumba Miruka
Publisher: East African Publishers
ISBN: 9789966250865
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
This is the sixth title in a series of titles focussing on the oral literary tradition of various East African ethnic groups - the Maasai, the Embu and the Mbeere amongst others - published by EAEP. Okumba Miruka, particularly known for his contribution to oral literature in Kenya, sets out to contexualise his subject by first explaining about the Luo people and culture - from migratory patterns and economic activity to the concept of divinity, death, warfare and Luo cuisine and eating culture. He then approaches the oral literature of the Luo through the genres of riddles, proverbs, poetry and narratives. For each genre, he offers a general introduction, notes on style, convention, performance and social function, and a wide range of samples, or 'primary texts' with commentaries.

Oral Literature of the Kalenjin

Oral Literature of the Kalenjin PDF Author: Ciarunji Chesaina
Publisher: East African Publishers
ISBN: 9789966468918
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description


A Dictionary of Oral Literature

A Dictionary of Oral Literature PDF Author: Leteipa Ole Sunkuli
Publisher: East African Publishers
ISBN: 9789966465078
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description


The Oral Artist

The Oral Artist PDF Author: Wanjiku M. Kabira
Publisher: East African Publishers
ISBN: 9789966461728
Category : Folk artists
Languages : en
Pages : 116

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Book Description


Kenyan Oral Narratives

Kenyan Oral Narratives PDF Author: Wanjiku Mukabi Kabira
Publisher: East African Publishers
ISBN: 9789966462305
Category : Folk literature, Kenyan
Languages : en
Pages : 116

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Book Description


Oral Literature in Africa

Oral Literature in Africa PDF Author: Ruth Finnegan
Publisher: Open Book Publishers
ISBN: 1906924708
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 614

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Book Description
Ruth Finnegan's Oral Literature in Africa was first published in 1970, and since then has been widely praised as one of the most important books in its field. Based on years of fieldwork, the study traces the history of storytelling across the continent of Africa. This revised edition makes Finnegan's ground-breaking research available to the next generation of scholars. It includes a new introduction, additional images and an updated bibliography, as well as its original chapters on poetry, prose, "drum language" and drama, and an overview of the social, linguistic and historical background of oral literature in Africa. This book is the first volume in the World Oral Literature Series, an ongoing collaboration between OBP and World Oral Literature Project. A free online archive of recordings and photographs that Finnegan made during her fieldwork in the late 1960s is hosted by the World Oral Literature Project (http: //www.oralliterature.org/collections/rfinnegan001.html) and can also be accessed from publisher's website.

Studying Oral Literature

Studying Oral Literature PDF Author: Simon Okumba Miruka
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Folk literature
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description


Encounter with Oral Literature

Encounter with Oral Literature PDF Author: Simon Okumba Miruka
Publisher: East African Educ. Publ.
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
The author has undertaken extensive research in oral literature and is the author of A Dictionary of Oral Literature. Here he uses an anthological approach to examine the various genres of oral literature both at the theoretical and analytical level. The anthology emphasises the areas of definition, classification, style and themes. The book is essentially an analysis of the four genres of riddles, proverbs, oral poetry and narratives. It introduces a new way of looking at oral literature, particularly in the case of riddles and proverbs which have received little analytical attention locally in terms of classifying them and discussing their styles and social functions. The author contends that the four genres exist in a continuum rather than as disparate phenomena.

African Oral Literature

African Oral Literature PDF Author: Isidore Okpewho
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253207104
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
". . . its pages come alive with wonderful illustrative material coupled with sensitve and insightful commentary." —Reviews in Anthropology " . . . the scope, breadth, and lucidity of this excellent study confirm that Okpewho is undoubtedly the most important authority writing on African oral literature right now . . . " —Research in African Literatures "Truly a tour de force of individual scholarship . . . " —World Literature Today " . . . excellent . . . " —African Affairs " . . . a thorough synthesis of the main issues of oral literature criticism, as well as a grounding in experienced fieldwork, a wide-ranging theoretical base, and a clarity of argument rare among academics." —Multicultural Review "This is a breathtakingly ambitious project . . . " —Harold Scheub " . . . a definitive accounting of the evidence of living oral traditions in Africa today. Professor Okpewho's authority as an expert in this important new field is unrivaled." —Gregory Nagy "Isidore Okpewho's African Oral Literature is a marvelous piece of scholarship and wide-ranging research. It presents the most comprehensive survey of the field of oral literature in Africa." —Emmanuel Obiechina " . . . a tour de force of scholarship in which Okpewho casts his net across the African continent, searching for its verbal forms through voluminous recent writings and presents African oral literature in a new voice, proclaiming the literariness of African folklore." —Dan Ben-Amos "This is an outstanding book by a scholar whose work has already influenced how African literature should be conceived. . . . Professor Okpewho is a scholar with a special talent to nurture scholarship in others. After this work, African literature will never be the same." —Mazisi Kunene Isidore Okpewho, for many years Professor of English at the University of Ibadan, is one of the handful of African scholars who has facilitated the growth of African oral literature to its status today as a literary enterprise concerned with the artistic foundations of human culture. This comprehensive critical work firmly establishes oral literature as a landmark of high artistic achievement and situates it within the broader framework of contemporary African culture.