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. |
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... tree And it stands up again — gomololo ! " Gomololo ! The tree stood up straight again . Gomololo ! The aunt said , " Oh ! What kind of bird is this ? Yo ! " She pursued this birrrrrrrd ! She caught up with the bird ; she seized it and ...
... tree down , a cabbage tree . He cut it down neatly , making certain that it was equal to himself in height . Then he barked the tree , peeling the outer bark in strips with the axe . He peeled that cabbage tree carefully ; he peeled it ...
... tree in that homestead ! It was a tall tree , the end of which could not be seen ! No one could put his hands on that tree . Whenever a man approached it , whenever he tried to put his hands on it , the tree refused to be grasped . The ...
Contents
The Art of the Storyteller | 7 |
Masithathu Zenani on Storytelling | 19 |
Tales | 27 |
Copyright | |
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