On the Polyphonic Nature of the Gicaandi Genre

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Periodical article

Title:	On the Polyphonic Nature of the Gicaandi Genre
Author:	Njogu, Kimani
Year:	1997
Periodical:	African Languages and Cultures
Volume:	10
Issue:	1
Pages:	47-62
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Kenya
Subjects:	Kikuyu oral poetry Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/1771814
Abstract:	Polyphony (literally many voices) makes reference not so much to the number of voices as such but to the plurality of an individual utterance, that is the ability of an utterance to encapsulate someone else's utterance, thus creating a dialogic relation between the voice of the self and the voice of that other. Polyphony is evident in orally performed poetic genres that are structurally composed as dialogue. One such genre is the 'g~icaand~i', essentially a competitive, yet cooperative, riddle-like dialogue poem and poetic exchange performed among the Gikuyu (Kenya). The author presents a number of 'g~icaand~i' poems, in Kikuyu and English, and examines their polyphonic nature by reexaming the stratification of the narrator's voice into two distinct voices such as, for example, the narrative voice and the metacommentary voice; the ability of the performers to make reference to each other and to anticipate each other's words; the incorporation of general ideological positions of the Gikuyu community in the genre; and the incorporation into the performance of other individual characters, relevant to the narrative. Bibliogr., notes, ref.