The World and the Word: Tales and Observations from the Xhosa Oral TraditionA master storyteller of the Xhosa people of South Africa, Nongenile Masithathu Zenani gives us an unprecedented view of an oral society from within. Twenty-four of her complex and beautiful tales about birth, puberty, marriage, and work, as told to the renowned collector of African oral tradition, Harold Scheub, are gathered here. Accompanying the stories are Zenani’s detailed commentaries and analyses and Scheub’s striking photographs of her in performance. The combination of these historical and cultural observations with a richly symbolic collection of tales from a single traditional storyteller make The World and the Word a remarkable document. |
From inside the book
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... birth . The beast cannot be de- stroyed ; no one can take it from the young bride . It remains the token of her pro- tection by the home of her ancestors while she dwells in an unfamiliar place . The imbulu is an imaginative character ...
... birth , and then she became a wom- an who merely existed . She resigned herself and her heart to what had happened ... birth . That other wife , the first one , was still pregnant . Now when this second wife gave birth , she bore birds ...
... birth , many things were done . The father had told his wife , " Prepare the marriage things for our daughter . ' So that appropriate marriage items might be fashioned , some things were picked in the pasture , others gathered from the ...
Contents
The Art of the Storyteller | 7 |
Masithathu Zenani on Storytelling | 19 |
Tales | 27 |
Copyright | |
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