Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction: Perspectives on African Oral Traditions and Folklore.- Part I. Contexts and Practicalities.- Chapter 2. Creativity and Performance in Oral Poetry.- Chapter 3. Concept and Components of Performance.- Chapter 4. The Role of the Audience in Oral Performance.- Chapter 5. Orality, History, and Historical Reconstruction.- Chapter 6. Insights from Festivals and Carnivals.- Chapter 7. Fieldwork and Data Collection.- Chapter 8. Documenting Oral Genres.- Chapter 9. Retrospect and Prospects of Oral Tradition and Folklore.- Part II. Themes, Tropes and Types. Chapter 10. Epic Tradition.- Chapter 11. Divination and Divinatory Systems.- Chapter 12. Myth and Mythology.- Chapter 13. The Dirge.- Chapter 14. Dreams within the Context of the Basotho Culture.- Chapter 15. Drum Language and Literature.- Chapter 16. Oratory and Rhetoric: Praise Poetry.- Chapter 17. Proverbs, Naming, and other Forms of Veiled Speech.- Chapter 18. Oral Poetry: Monyoncho’s Orature and AbaGusii Culture of Non-violence.- Chapter 19. Ifá: A Womanist Deconstruction of Gender Politics.- Chapter 20. A Repertoire of Bukusu Nonverbal Communicative System: Some Gender Differences, etc.

About the Author

Editors:

Akintunde Akinyemi is Professor and Chair in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Florida, USA.

Toyin Falola is the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities and a Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, USA.

Partial Listing of Contributors:

Julius Adekunle, Monmouth University

Simeon Ibigbolade Aderibigbe, University of Georgia at Athens, USA 

Chiji Akoma, Villanova University, USA 

Adetayo Alabi, University of Mississippi, USA

Joyce Ashuntantang, University of Hartford, USA

Karin Barber, University of Birmingham, UK

Ragi Bashonga, Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa

Robert Cancel, University of California, San Diego, USA

Raphael d’Abdon, University of South Africa

Ernest N. Emenyonu, University of Michigan–Flint, USA 

Olawole Famule, University of Wisconsin at Superior, USA

Artisia Green, College of William and Mary, USA

Marame Gueye, East Carolina University, USA

Lee Haring, Brooklyn College, CUNY, USA

Kathryn Jones, Swansea University, UK

Kasongo M. Kapanga, University of Richmond, USA

Russell H. Kaschula, Rhodes University, South Africa

Cécile Leguy, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3, France

Joseph McLaren, Hofstra University, USA

Patricia Beatrice Mireku-Gyimah, University of Mines and Technology, Ghana

Mustafa Kemal Mirzeler, Western Michigan University, USA

Besi Brillian Muhonja, James Madison University, USA

Juliana Makuchi Nfah-Abbenyi, North Carolina State University, USA

Jacomien van Niekerk, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Felicia Ohwovoriole, University of Lagos, Nigeria

Rose Opondo, Moi University, Kenya

Félix Ayoh'Omidire, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria

Gail Presbey, University of Detroit Mercy, USA

Lesibana Rafapa, University of South Africa

Relfiwe M. Ramagoshi, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Angela M. Farr Schiller, Kennesaw State University, USA

Enongene Mirabeau Sone, Walter Sisulu University, Cameroon

Mobolanle Sotunsa, Babcock University, Nigeria

Rémi Armand Tchokothe, University of Bayreuth, Germany

Antoinette Tidjani Alaou, Niamey University, Niger

Karim Traoré, University of Georgia, USA

Hanétha Vété-Congolo, Bowdoin College, USA

Hein Willemse, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Felicity Wood, University of Fort Hare, South Africa