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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... thing that he would never forget . No matter how he looked at it , it was a thing that he had never before seen . He shaded his eyes as this creature came toward him : it was a thing he had never heard about , even in stories . On one ...
... thing came to me , it said that I should make an offering . I who am the child of the king . I answered the thing : ' I make an offering ? I make an offering ? Here are the things of my father , take them ! ' That's what I said , and ...
... thing ! You low person ! I send this miserable thing to my home , and it proceeds to eat the food in a secret cave ! And now , you go about getting these things from trees and putting them on your body ! What kind of brain is that ? Now ...
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
PrologueOrigins | 9 |
Masithathu Zenani on Storytelling | 19 |
Copyright | |
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