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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... home of 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 ...
... home to the veld , the wilderness , the out - there where all is unfamiliar , dangerous , unknown - fantastic . In ... birth to her house of marriage , a trip that Xhosa women take when they marry . In oral narratives , that movement is fre- ...
... home of birth . The second year came , and still she did not miss her home . This woman had been the fourth girl child of her mother ; in age , she was in the middle of the other girls . They all got married in the end , including the ...
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
PrologueOrigins | 9 |
Masithathu Zenani on Storytelling | 19 |
Copyright | |
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