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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | Erotic poetry of the Grasslands |
| Author: | Ongoum, Louis-Marie |
| Year: | 1993 |
| Periodical: | Research in African Literatures |
| Volume: | 24 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Pages: | 101-108 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Cameroon |
| Subjects: | Bamileke oral poetry songs erotic songs |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/3819889 |
| Abstract: | The Bamileke, also known as the 'people of the Grasslands', live in the North-West Province of Cameroon. Their poetry, like that of many other peoples, is recited rarely or not at all; instead, it is sung and danced. This is certainly the case with their erotic poetry, which is rather widely disseminated despite (or perhaps because of) the strictness of their mores. From a diachronic perspective, the erotic poetry of the Grasslands peoples exists in two phases: one ancient, the other modern. The first period spans everything that was written before the 1960s, whereas the second begins at about the time of independence (1960) and lasts for approximately ten years. The erotic poetry of the earlier period is characterized by hermeticism. These poems are actually performed once a year in a solemn manner during the January full moon. The new form of poetry established itself in opposition to its predecessor. It is not sung and danced by all members of the community, regardless of their social ranks. On the contrary, it is only performed by adolescents and it is sung on innumerable occasions, in response to their whims. The author presents examples, in Bamileke and English, of both categories, showing how difficult it in fact is to determine where one category begins and the other ends. |
