Download or read book Oral Epics from Africa written by John William Johnson and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1997-04-22 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It seems incredible that heretofore there has not been an introductory anthology of African epics presented in English. Western literary culture has long emphasized the heritage of such well-known epics as the Iliad, the Odyssey, and Aeneid. But it is only recently that scholars have turned their attention toward capturing the rich oral tradition that is still alive in Africa. The twenty-five excerpts in this volume have been selected and introduced so as to offer English-speaking readers a broad sample of the extensive epic traditions in Africa. The general introduction and the background on each epic will enable readers to understand the context of each epic and will also provide leads for further inquiry.
Download or read book Epic Traditions of Africa written by Stephen Belcher and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1999-10-22 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Belcher's volume contains a much needed and extremely well-integrated overview and discussion of a vast inter-related West African culture complex that deserves and requires the kind of original, insightful treatment it receives here." —David Conrad Epic Traditions of Africa crosses boundaries of language, distance, and time to gather material from diverse African oral epic traditions. Stephen Belcher explores the rich past and poetic force of African epics and places them in historical and social, as well as artistic contexts. Colorful narratives from Central and West African traditions are illuminated along with texts that are more widely available to Western readers—the Mande Sunjata and the Bamana Segou. Belcher also takes up questions about European influences on African epic poetry and the possibility of mutual influence through out the genre. This lively and informative volume will inspire an appreciation for the distinctive qualities of this uniquely African form of verbal art.
Download or read book The African Epic Controversy written by Mugyabuso M. Mulokozi and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mulokozi discusses African epic poetry from a context-performance perspective, and asserts that oral epic poetry is a living and lived event, besides being a literary text. His work is based on previously unpublished material from the Enanga epic tradition of the Bahaya of Tanzania, and material on the African epic, gathered from West, Central, Southern and Eastern Africa since 1970, and arises from the controversies about the occurrence of the epic in Africa from this time. It includes full texts of the poems themselves in the original Luhaya language and set alongside English translations. For each poem, the author presents a profile of the singer, and an introduction and anaylsis of the socio-historical context, literary content and stylistic features of the poem. Adopting a sociological, generative approach, he re-examines questions of oral composition, oral poetics, the nature and role of music in epic performance, the concept of heroism in African epic poetry, and how it stands in relation to history and philosophy. As a whole, the study reaffirms the existence of the African epic, and generates new definitions and theoretical approaches taking forward scholarly debate on epic poetry in Africa.
Download or read book Heroism and the Supernatural in the African Epic written by Mariam Konaté Deme and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-09-13 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Western criticism has largely failed to acknowledge the distinctiveness of African literary aesthetics. This book revises traditional literary canons in examining the social, cultural and emotional specificity of African epics and highlighting distinguishing features, such as the significance of the fantastic and its use in the epic dramatic structure.
Download or read book The Epic of Son Jara written by Fa-Digi Sisòkò and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1992-08-22 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: " . . . a major addition to the literature on oral traditions." —Journal of Religion in Africa This 750-year-old epic celebrates the exploits of the legendary founder of the Empire of Old Mali. It constitutes a virtual social, political, and cultural charter and embodies deep-rooted aspects of Mande cosmology. The fully annotated translation is accompanied by an introduction that provides a historical and contextual framework for understanding the recitation of this African epic.
Download or read book The Epic in Africa written by Isidore Okpewho and published by New York : Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1979 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Sunjata written by David C. Conrad and published by Hackett Publishing. This book was released on 2004-01-01 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A pillar of the West African oral tradition for centuries, this epic traces the adventures and achievements of the Mande hero, Sunjata, as he liberates his people from Sumaworo Kanté, the sorcerer king of Soso, and establishes the great medieval empire of Mali. David Conrad conveys the strong narrative thrust of the Sunjata epic in his presentation of substantial excerpts from his translation of a performance by Djanka Tassey Condé. Readers approaching the epic for the first time will appreciate the translation's highly readable, poetic English as well as Conrad's informative Introduction and notes. Scholars will find the familiar heroes and heroines taking on new dimensions, secondary characters gaining increased prominence, and previously unknown figures emerging from obscurity. "Thanks to his careful editing and translating of Condé's narrative, Conrad offers a highly readable version of the epic that is about a third of its original length. The translation communicates not only the poetic qualities and the essential events of the Sunjata legend but also the master bard's performance values. Thus, this rendering will fascinate those who already know the story and culture and those coming to the epic for the first time. Conrad provides an excellent introduction to Mande oral tradition, the role of the griot, and the Manding belief system. Though he makes no claim for this as the complete scholarly edition, he does provide helpful scholarly notes, a glossary, and a good bibliography. . . . Summing up: Highly recommended." --L. W. Yoder, CHOICE
Download or read book Epic Poetry in Swahili written by Jan Knappert and published by Brill Archive. This book was released on 1983 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Lianja Epic written by Mubima Maneniang' and published by East African Publishers. This book was released on 1999 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since around the fourteenth century this heroic narrative has been handed down the generations orally within the Mongo People, and has now been published in English for the first time. The translation captures the African imagery, idiom and forms of literary expression. With the themes of peace, unity and reconciliation at its centre, the author encompasses and depicts the rich cultural heritage of the Mongo people. The narrative is simultaneously an expose of the great deeds of a legendary Mongo hero and the fascinating socio-historical, economic and religious context in which the Mongo have lived and continue to live.
Download or read book African Oral Epic Poetry written by Fritz H. Pointer and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published in 2012, with Pointer rather than Byrd credited as translator, under the title: A translation into English of the epic of Kambili (an African mythic hero).
Download or read book The Mwindo Epic from the Banyanga written by Daniel Biebuyck and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-07-28 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The feats of the hero Mwindo are here glorified in the bilingual text of an epic which was sung and narrated in a Bantu language and acted out by a member of the Nyanga tribe in the remote forest regions of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Admirably structured, coherent, and richly poetic, the epic is in prose form, interspersed with song and proverbs in verse. An example of the classic tradition of oral folk literature, the tale has important implications for the comparative study of African culture, as the text provides profound insights into the social structure, value system, linguistics, and cosmology of this African people.
Download or read book The Epic of Son Jara written by Fa-Digi Sisòkò and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ..". a major addition to the literature on oral traditions." -- Journal of Religion in Africa This 750-year-old epic celebrates the exploits of the legendary founder of the Empire of Old Mali. It constitutes a virtual social, political, and cultural charter and embodies deep-rooted aspects of Mande cosmology. The fully annotated translation is accompanied by an introduction that provides a historical and contextual framework for understanding the recitation of this African epic.
Download or read book The Black Fives written by Claude Johnson and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2022-05-24 with total page 710 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Black Fives is a groundbreaking, timely history of the largely unknown early days of Black basketball, bringing to life the trailblazing players, teams, and impresarios who pioneered the sport. “For a game that has meant so much to the world, Claude Johnson somehow presents a definitive account for a part of basketball’s history that for so long was kept away from us. Claude is a superhero storyteller, and this book is a bona fide superpower.” —Justin Tinsley, author of It Was All a Dream: Biggie and the World That Made Him From the introduction of the game of basketball to Black communities on a wide scale in 1904 to the racial integration of the NBA in 1950, dozens of African American teams were founded and flourished. This period, known as the Black Fives Era (teams at the time were often called “fives”), was a time of pioneering players and managers. They battled discrimination and marginalization and created culturally rich, socially meaningful events. But despite headline-making rivalries between big-city clubs, barnstorming tours across the country, innovative business models, and undeniably talented players, this period is almost entirely unknown to basketball fans. Claude Johnson has made it his mission to change that. An advocate fiercely committed to our history, for more than two decades Johnson has conducted interviews, mined archives, collected artifacts, and helped to preserve this historically important African American experience that otherwise would have been lost. This essential book is the result of his work, a landmark narrative history that braids together the stories of these forgotten pioneers and rewrites our understanding of the story of basketball.
Download or read book African Myths Tales written by and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-07-07 with total page 553 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Africa south of the Sahara is a land of wide-ranging traditions and varying cultures. Despite the diversity and the lack of early written records, the continent possesses a rich body of folk tales and legends that have been passed down through the strong custom of storytelling and which often share similar elements, characters and ideas between peoples. So this collection offers a hefty selection of legends and tales – stories of the gods, creation and origins, trickster exploits, animal fables and stories which entertain and edify – from ‘Obatala Creates Mankind’, from the Yoruba people of west Africa, to ‘The Girl Of The Early Race, Who Made Stars’, from the San people of southern Africa, all collected in a gorgeous gold-foiled and embossed hardback to treasure.
Download or read book Reading Africa into American Literature written by Keith Cartwright and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2014-10-17 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The literature often considered the most American is rooted not only in European and Western culture but also in African and American Creole cultures. Keith Cartwright places the literary texts of such noted authors as George Washington Cable, W.E.B. DuBois, Alex Haley, Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, William Faulkner, Joel Chandler Harris, Herman Melville, Toni Morrison, and many others in the context of the history, spiritual traditions, folklore, music, linguistics, and politics out of which they were written. Cartwright grounds his study of American writings in texts from the Senegambian/Old Mali region of Africa. Reading epics, fables, and gothic tales from the crossroads of this region and the American South, he reveals that America's foundational African presence, along with a complex set of reactions to it, is an integral but unacknowledged source of the national culture, identity, and literature.
Download or read book Gassire s Lute written by Alta Jablow and published by Waveland Press. This book was released on 1990-11-01 with total page 65 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A rousing tale of wars and heroes, Gassires Lute recounts the fall of the city-state Wagadu and tells how Gassire, warrior son of the ruling family, renounced his noble birth to become his peoples first bard. As an example of the relatively unknown oral literature of Africa, this poem is rich in historical and cultural interest. But it can be read and enjoyed simply as a beautiful and exciting story that shows clearly the universality of art and of human experience. The Waveland reprint includes an essay by the translator (The Origin of Soninke Bardic Art), which is meant to provide pertinent information for understanding and enjoying the poem.
Download or read book Clever Monkey Rides Again written by and published by august house. This book was released on 2007 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a West African tale in which the clever monkey faces a mean lion who has been bullying the other animals. Original.
