Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home AfricaBib Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Periodical issue Periodical issue Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The preservation and survival of African oral literature
Editor:Okpewho, IsidoreISNI
Year:2007
Periodical:Research in African Literatures (ISSN 0034-5210)
Volume:38
Issue:3
Pages:230
Language:English
Geographic term:Subsaharan Africa
Subjects:oral literature
oral traditions
conference papers (form)
2004
External link:http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/research_in_african_literatures/toc/ral38.3.html
Abstract:In recognition and support of UNESCO's agenda for the protection of the oral traditions of the world, the International Society for Oral Literature in Africa (ISOLA) chose 'the preservation and survival of African oral literature' as the topic of its July 15-17, 2004, meeting in Banjul, Gambia. The papers in this volume represent a selection of the presentations. They reveal a spectrum of interests, including a more or less ethnographic view of the oral tradition as a model for some contemporary modes of (self-)representation (Yoruba hunters' chants, the 'vanishing hitchhiker' tale type); an examination of the ways in which the tradition adjusts itself, on the one hand to more recent social and political imperatives (Herero praise poetry, testimonies given by women to South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a Maninka praise song, Maryse Condé's use of African oral tradition) and, on the other, to the new audiovisual technology (Yoruba video films, Radio Parana in Mali); and recommendations of ways to preserve and codify the oral text (the recording of 'jasare', genealogists and historians among the Soninke of Zarma, Niger), as well as find a berth for it in the new hypermedia. A final paper questions the validity of the union between tradition and the new technology. Contributors: Leif Lorentzon, Adetayo Alabi, John William Johnson, John D. Galuska, Anette Hoffmann, Annalisa Oboe, Tal Tamari, Chiji Akoma, Akintunde Akinyemi, Cécile Leguy, Sandra Bornand, Jean Derive, Anne-Marie Dauphin-Tinturier, Oyekan Owomoyela. [ASC Leiden abstract]
Views
Cover