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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... skin thus becomes associated with a kind of swallowing : when the girl emerges from the skin of the beast , she has attained full wom- anhood . The imbulu skin signals the end of childhood , the blossoming of the child into the woman ...
... skin should be given to him . But even then , there were rival claims regarding the master of cere- monies ' ox - hide . Someone insisted that “ There's no skin of a master of ceremonies for a mere boy ! " That was the claim of the two ...
... skin mantle . It was said , " Today , they've put on the skin mantles for the dance , " to confirm that this woman had truly married into this home : she was a woman of the marriage dance . That bride had a skin mantle on her back , but ...
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
PrologueOrigins | 9 |
Masithathu Zenani on Storytelling | 19 |
Copyright | |
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