Academic literature on the topic 'Traditional African songs'
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Journal articles on the topic "Traditional African songs"
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Mwangi, Evan. "Sex, Music, and the City in a Globalized East Africa." PMLA/Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 122, no. 1 (January 2007): 321–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1632/pmla.2007.122.1.321.
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One of the first things i noticed on landing in my hometown of nairobi, kenya, for summer vacation this year was the continued proliferation of new-style music that undermines traditional ties with the solid rural identities seen previously as quintessential manifestations of patriotism and African racial pride. Radios in duty-free shops at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport were tuned to various FM stations, which issued beats that were a cross between Western hip-hop and traditional village music. Notable were the songs' calls for dissolving the boundaries between East African countries—namely, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.
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Pier, David. "THE BRANDED ARENA: UGANDAN ‘TRADITIONAL’ DANCE IN THE MARKETING ERA." Africa 81, no. 3 (July 22, 2011): 413–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0001972011000246.
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ABSTRACTBrand marketing in its latest global advances offers ideologies of public participation and the audience–‘provider’ relationship that many in the developing world are finding compelling, even when consumer capitalism fails to produce its promised rewards immediately. Strategies of ‘branding’ are being explored in combination with older performance strategies, with new syncretic branded arenas emerging as a result. In Africa, music and dance have always been important for establishing certain arenas and mediating transactions within them. In the era of post-independence nationalism, ‘traditional’ dances were itemized and made more disciplined and spectacular to give new states an aura of inclusiveness, rigour and historical depth. As the image of a powerful African state declines, these same dance traditions are being hitched to commercial brands, and to the globalized consumerist/entreprenurial dream. This article considers the Senator National Cultural Extravaganza, an annual traditional music-and-dance competition sponsored by East Africa Breweries Ltd, which requires participants to compose ‘local’ songs and dances in praise of Senator Extra Lager. It focuses on the spatial and temporal architectures of events and the way these channel, and are complicated by, the energies and significances of dance. The ‘textbook’ brand–consumer relationship does not, it is argued, survive wholly intact.
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Eboh, Marie Pauline. "Public Reason and Embodied Community- Intercultural Philosophical Perspective: An African Approach." Filosofia Theoretica: Journal of African Philosophy, Culture and Religions 9, no. 1 (June 21, 2020): 63–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ft.v9i1.5.
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Every human person is a cultural being. Each culture has incomplete knowledge of reality, and the sharing of viewpoints makes for mutual enrichment, hence the need for intercultural perspectives. Even in a human being, body and spirit, emotion and reason reciprocally influence on each other. Life is dialogical. Action gives flesh to theory, and the abstract reason is exemplified in real things, which is what embodiment of reason is all about. Principles govern all things and public reason, as a causal principle, regulates the affairs of embodied homogeneous communities. African embodiment of reason is self-evident in names and allegories wherein rational thoughts and ideas are personified the way sentient robots embody or personify Artificial Intelligence (AI). In this treatise, we shall use allegory, nomenclature, traditional songs, apophthegms, etc., to show how Africans wisely incarnate ideas in things. As it is analogous to modern-day AI, we shall not only highlight the African approach to public reason and embodied community but also tangentially discuss the effect of AI on the global community, of which Africa is a subunit. In conclusion, we shall caution against the empowering of robots with logical reasoning, and the disempowering and denaturalizing of humans.
Keywords: Reason, Embodiment, Philosophy, Principle and Community.
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Udefi, Amaechi. "Dimensions of Epistemology and the Case for Africa’s Indigenous Ways of Knowing." Tattva - Journal of Philosophy 7, no. 1 (January 1, 2015): 1–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.12726/tjp.13.1.
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philosophical practice has taken a new turn since it survived the large scale problems and debates which characterized its early beginnings in an African environment and intellectual community. The metaphilosophical issues then concerned about its status, relevance and methodology appropriate or usable for doing it. Although the issues that troubled African philosophers then may have subsided, yet some of them have and are still expressing reservations on the possibility of having Africa‟s indigenous ways of knowing, just as they deny the possibility of „African physics‟ or „African arithmetic‟. Paulin Hountondji, a leading African philosopher, is reputed for denying African traditional thought as philosophy, which he prefers to type as ethnophilosophy, simply because it thrives on orality and other ethnographical materials like proverbs, parables, folklores, fables, songs etc. For him, the piece, at best can qualify as ethnographical or anthropological monographs as opposed to philosophical work which relies on written texts and documentation on the basis of which “theoretical knowledge and significant intellectual exchange and innovation can” be achieved in Africa. Hountondji‟s position is, to say the least, exclusionist, since it denies and debars African modes of thought and heritage a position in the on-going philosophical conversation or discourse. The paper shares Hountondji‟s vision of adoption of an attitude of critical, scientific and skeptical orientation in African societies. However, it rejects the views of Hountondji and other scholars who deny African intellectual and cognitive systems and argues that their position rests on one sided conception or dimension of epistemology. The other intention of the paper is to show that philosophical practice is as old as the history of mankind in Africa, though Hountondj has expressed the view that philosophy as an academic discipline started in African Universities only in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
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Omotoso, Gbenga, Olatunbosun Samuel Adekogbe, and Olusanjo Mathew Abayomi Daramola. "“OMO T’O MO ‘YA’RE LOJU” (A child that despises his mother) narratives cultural value of motherhood in Jimi Solanke’s music." Journal of Gender and Power 13, no. 1 (June 1, 2020): 135–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/jgp-2020-0008.
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AbstractWithin the traditional African setting, the values of an African mother in the domestic and societal ambience have called for great concerns. Akinjobi (2011, p. 2) examines African Motherhood as a sacred as well as a powerful spiritual component in the nurturing and development of an African child. The scope of this paper therefore, is to examine the position of Jimi Solanke on the values of African mothers as advocated in some of his purposively selected songs which address the values and position of motherhood as caretakers of children and strongholds in African homes. The paper adopts oral interview, the theory of Womanism and Feminism as rightly observed by Sotunsa (2008, pp. 227–234) as its methodological approaches and largely concentrates on the experience of an African mother, the family relationship as well as the importance of motherhood in her role as an African child nurturer and developer. The paper finds out that Jimi Solanke has not only appraised the values of African mothers, but also expressed severe consequences on any African child who despised or despoiled an African mother.
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Essomba, Anne Obono. "Oral Literature and Transculturality: A Study of Contemporary Cameroonian Songs." Asian Journal of Humanity, Art and Literature 8, no. 1 (August 21, 2021): 55–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.18034/ajhal.v8i1.573.
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Globalization led by Europe has spread so-called 'universal' values across the globe, which seems to have cultural intermingling as its backdrop. All human endeavors are based on a culture that has become multidimensional. All the time, in their diversity, cultures try to complement and absorb each other. However, in this meeting of cultural giving and receiving, it takes on a new face, the culture shock. This encounter causes major changes in our modern societies, giving way to a loss of cultural identity and internal imbalance. This article aims to analyze the way in which contemporary Cameroonian musicians use cultural and linguistic facts for communication purposes and other arguments. The aim of our work is to show how the various songwriters have found, through song, a new mode of resistance so that African traditions escape sedimentation. In this way, they reconcile the elements of oral tradition and the contributions of modernity to create a hybrid product. To illustrate our point, we have chosen oral texts from different regions of Cameroon. In order to better understand the transcultural reality in the texts, we will highlight the marks of traditional and modern aesthetics, then show that the transcultural is seen as a space of symbiosis between the traditional and the modern.
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Lebaka, Morakeng E. K. "Misconceptions About Indigenous African Music and Culture: the Case of Indigenous Bapedi Music, Oral Tradition and Culture." European Journal of Social Sciences 2, no. 2 (May 30, 2019): 18. http://dx.doi.org/10.26417/ejss-2019.v2i2-61.
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Indigenous Bapedi music and oral tradition have been dismissed as myth, superstition and primitive stories. Such dismissal has been based on the misconception and assumption that indigenous Bapedi music and oral tradition are proletarian, steeped in evil religious experiences and unacceptable for worship. In Bapedi society, indigenous music and traditional oral stories are utilized to buttress and demonstrate the collective wisdom of Bapedi people, as well as to transmit Bapedi culture, values, beliefs and history from generation to generation. This article examines misconceptions about indigenous Bapedi music and traditional oral stories. It argues that indigenous Bapedi music and oral tradition should not be dismissed at face value as practices overtaken by circumstances and hence irrelevant to the present Bapedi community developmental needs. The findings of the present study faithfully reflect that indigenous Bapedi songs and traditional oral stories resonate in people’s personal lives, in religious rituals and in society at large. These findings suggest that Bapedi people should keep and perpetuate their valuable heritage, which is still needed for survival and for the welfare of our next generation. The main question the study addressed is: What role do indigenous Bapedi music and oral tradition play in Bapedi culture?
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Shokpeka, S. A. "Myth in the Context of African Traditional Histories: Can it be Called “Applied History”?" History in Africa 32 (2005): 485–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/hia.2005.0023.
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For the reconstruction of history from oral sources, four broad types are usually distinguishable. These are myth, legend, songs, and what Phillips Stevens calls “popular history.” All of them fall under the generic heading of “folklore”—a term which is so broad in its application that it could include nearly all expressive aspects of culture. The only type that we will concern ourselves with in this study is myth. A comprehensive examination of the issue in question in the study requires a definition of the word myth; an examination of the characteristics of “applied history;” and the application of these characteristics to myth with a view to finding out any point of agreement between them, before a final answer will be given to the question whether “myth in the context of African traditional histories,” can be called applied history.The Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English defines myth as a “story handed down from olden time, containing the early beliefs of a race.” Vansina identifies myths by their subject matter and talks about them as those stories which “deal with and interpret the relations between the natural and the supernatural and are concerned with all that part of religious life that lies beyond the moral order. “ He says that they “attempt to explain the world, the culture, the society … in terms of religious causes.” McCall, for his part, refers to myths as “stories concerning the supernatural, the activities of deities, spirits and semi-divine heroes on the origin of the world, mankind and cultural artifacts and institutions which usually are said to have been achieved through the instrumentality of these sacred beings.” Afigbo, in turn, considers myths as having the “tendency to explain historical institutions and development by appeal to non-historic factors and forces”—as stories that see “the supernatural acting at times through the agency of man, at times through the agency of the lower animals and other times even through the agency of inanimate object, as the original and continuing causes of motion in a society.”
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Nabofa, M. Y. "Blood Symbolism in African Religion." Religious Studies 21, no. 3 (September 1985): 389–405. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0034412500017479.
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Symbolism has found spontaneous expression in several religious and secular practices among many different peoples of Africa. These expressions can be seen in religious emblems, ideograms, rituals, songs, prayers, myths, incantations, vows, customary behaviour and personifications. The under-standing of these religious symbols lends itself to rapid comprehensive and compact use; not only that, it also helps understanding and concentration. In fact, Mary Douglas expresses the view that such symbols, especially rituals, aid us in selecting experiences for concentrated attention, creative at the level of performance, and can mysteriously help the co-ordination of brain and body (1966, p. 63). Conversely, religious symbols have their ambiguities, and these could shroud their true meaning to the unwary. A religious symbol could also represent a complex set of ideas at different levels which gives room to diverse theological, philosophical and psychological interpretations. While we may agree with Raymond Firth (1973, p. 32) that an anthropologist is concerned primarily with the public use of the symbolic, and his aim is to separate symbols from referent so that he may describe the relations between them, we are of the view that those who are in the field of psychology of religion will be most concerned with how symbols influence the mind of the believer and thus understand the faith of the devotee better. In fact, it was the non-understanding of traditional African religious symbols and ideas that partly contributed to the way in which some of the early Western and Arab scholars, investigating African thought forms, looked at the African indigenous beliefs in a derogatory manner. As a method of scholarly research, a careful and meaningful study of the religious significance of certain ritualistic elements and behaviour enables us to understand and appreciate the more why certain things are treated in some special way by the believers, and thus helps to deepen our knowledge of that very faith. It helps us to grasp the essence of the religion rather than its incidentals. In order, therefore, to help comprehend some of the practices in African traditional religion attempts will be made in this paper to discuss the central significance of blood in African belief. Although I consulted the works of some anthropologists and theologians on African religions and philosophy of life, the bulk of the ethnographic materials used in this paper are mainly drawn from my fieldwork (1975–82) among some groups of Nigerians; and a great deal of my interpretations are surrounded by the theories propounded by Mary Douglas and Raymond Firth.
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Ibrahim, Binta Fatima. "The appropriation of linguistic forms for better cognitive comprehension of the Nigerian pragmatic literature." Babel. Revue internationale de la traduction / International Journal of Translation 56, no. 2 (August 13, 2010): 119–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/babel.56.2.02ibr.
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The propensity of the English language to absorb native nuances by the African writers should be seen as a worthwhile stylistic device, despite the position of English language. Its adaptability to natural flavours should therefore be aimed at the writers’ intention to reach a wider audience. This also means that the attempt by writers to decolorize through literature the polluted African culture god through the use of appropriate notions and local nuances. The technique has, however, been to put on record traditional ways of life, the peoples’ customs, communal activities such as festivals, ceremonies, rituals, myths, folktales, proverbs, music, dance, songs, etc. in order to remind the African reader about the importance of these crucial aspects of the tradition in addition to the appropriation of language use. Hence most African writings can be said to have their foundations in the cultural heritage of their various groups. through the use of what one may call technically implanted African English, African coinages, direct translation, proverbs, local idioms transfers of mother tongues, local insertions/ect. Hence it is not enough to use the sociological and residual approaches to literature. The formalist and pragmatic approaches should also be considered paramount in the writing of African literature. For the choice of diction, narrative technique and the entire pragma-aesthetic implications of the African man’s speech is important to the reader of African literature, if he is to understand the theme
Dissertations / Theses on the topic "Traditional African songs"
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Magomani, Hlekulani Violet. "Nxopaxopo wa tinsimu ta vanhwanyana va xikhale va Vatsonga." Thesis, University of Limpopo, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/1795.
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Thesis (M .A. (African Languages)) -- University of Limpopo, 2014This research “Nxopaxopo wa tinsimu ta vanhwanyana va xikhale va Vatsonga wu kongomisa eka manghenelo, xitatimendhe xa xipiqo, xikongomelo, nkoka wa maendlelo ni tinhlamuselo ta matheme lama nga tirhisiwa” deals with path which was paved by young girls of the older generations before married. In our discussion in this research I will touch some few things about their songs like the teaching of the nation, good behaviour for themselves even as adults and culture in totality etc. The other thing is language which the girls used when performing their songs. This research consists of six chapters. Chapter 1: It outlines the research proposal as follows. The introduction, statement of problem, aim of the study, the significance of the research, definition of terms, methods used and literature review. Chapter 2: This chapter explains the upbringing of young girls of the olden generation. Secondly, it outlines the stages that they undergo and the relationship between these stages. Furthermore it brings forth norms and values to be followed when these girls get married. Chapter 3: The chapter deals with the analysis of the chosen songs by young girls of the olden generations. Emphasis is based on the sense of the poem and the usage of figurative language. Chapter 4: Firstly it deals with the meaning of the word “theme”. It also outlines the theme of young girls of olden generations as per their varying categories, involves life in general, like unfaithfulness to their brother in law, love one another, for the love of culture etc. Chapter 5: Deals with the findings which this research discovered about the songs of the young girls of the olden generations. It also deals with the suggestion and recommendations. Chapter 6: It provides a list of various references used in this research
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Mphaphuli, Murembiwa Julia. "Tsenguluso ya kubveledzele kwa ndeme ya nyimbo dza sialala dza Vhavenda." Thesis, University of Limpopo, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/1240.
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Thesis (MA. (African Languages)) --University of Limpopo, 2013Mushumo uno wo sumbedza ṱhalutshedzo dza nyimbo dza sialala dza Tshivenḓa, kukhethekanyele kwa nyimbo dza sialala, zwifhinga zwa u imba nyimbo dza sialala, tshakha dza nyimbo dza sialala dza Vhavenḓa na tsumbo dzadzo, vhathu vhane vha imba nyimbo dza sialala, zwilidzo na mutengo wa zwilidzo zwa nyimbo dza sialala, mishumo ya nyimbo dza sialala dza Tshivenḓa, nḓila dza u tsireledza nyimbo dza sialala dza Vhavenḓa uri dzi songo ngalangala.
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Ndlovu, Caesar Maxwell Jeffrey. "Religion, tradition and custom in a Zulu male vocal idiom." Thesis, Rhodes University, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002315.
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The study is about a Zulu male vocal tradition called isicathamiya performed by 'migrants' in all night competitions called ingomabusuku. This is a performance style popularized by the award winning group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Isicathamiya, both in its symbolic structure and in the social and culturalpractice of its proponents has much in common with the ritual practices of Zionists. And Zionists are worshippers who integrate traditional beliefs and Christianity. This study will reveal that isicathamiya performance and Zionists are linked in three major areas:in the sqcial bases and practice of its proponents, in the structural properties of their performances and tn the meanings attached to these practices. Firstly, Zionists, who are also called a Separatist or African Independent church, and isicathamiya performers have minimal education and are employed in low income jobs in the cities. Most groups are formed with 'homeboy networks'. Furthermore, performers, unlike their brothers in the city, cling tenaciously to usiko [custom and tradition]. Although they are Christians, they still worship Umvelinqangi [The One Who Came First], by giving oblations and other forms of offerings. Amadlozi [the ancestors] are still believed to be their mediators with God. Also commonplace in this category is the practice of ukuchatha, [cleansing the stomach with some prepared medicine]; and ukuphalaza [taking out bile by spewing, which is also done as a way of warding off evil spirits]. These are rural practices that have meaning in their present domiciles. The second area of similarity consists in the structure of the nocturnal gatherings that form the core of the ritual and performance practices among isicathamiya singers and Zionists. Thus, a core of the ritual of Zionists is umlindelo [night vigil] which takes place every weekend from about 8 at night until the following day. Likewise, isicathamiya performers have competitions every Saturday evening from 8 at night until about 11 am the following day. Although Zionists night vigils are liturgical and isicathamiya competitions secular, the structures of both isicathamiya choreography and Zionists body movements appear the same. These movements are both rooted in a variety of traditional styles called ingoma. Thirdly, the meanings attached to these symbolic correspondences must be looked for in the selective appropriation of practices and beliefs taken to be traditional. Using present day commentaries in song and movement, ingoma and other rural styles performed in competitions and Zionists night vigils reflect a reconstruction of the past. Isicathamiya performers and Zionists see themselves as custodians of Zulu tradition, keeping Zulu ethnicity alive in the urban environment. This is why in this study we are going to see rural styles like ingoma, isifekezeli [war drills], ukusina [solo dancing] that were performed on the fields, now performed, sort of feigned and 'held in' as they are p~rformed in dance halls with wooden stages.
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Makaula, Phiwe Ndonana. "Aspects of moral education in Bhaca mamtiseni and nkciyo initiation rituals / Makaula P.N." Thesis, North-West University, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/4850.
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The main objective of this mini–dissertation is to investigate the basic form and
content of moral education as it manifests itself in the mamtiseni and nkciyo
female initiation rituals of the Mount Frere region of the Eastern Cape Province of
the Republic of South Africa. The main theoretical position taken is the reemergent
African Renaissance coupled with African indigenous knowledge
systems, first revived by (former) President Thabo Mbeki. Accordingly the main
purpose of this study is to address the transmission of moral aspects of female
Bhaca initiation inherent in behavioural/cultural educational enculturation.
The main findings of the mini–dissertation constitute the following:
1. Mamtiseni and nkciyo rituals play a major role in the enculturation of
young Bhaca girls.
2. The song texts carry strong messages of how to go about achieving a
healthy and surviving society.
There are further opportunities for research in the following aspects:
1. Nkciyo initiation schools are very exclusive, involving many secret codes.
The fact that I am a male put me at a disadvantage.
2. There are many more points of difference between the two rituals than
meets the eye.Thesis (M.Mus.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.
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Nemapate, Mmbulaheni Alfred. "A study of structure, meaning and performance in Tshivenda traditional songs." Thesis, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/2190.
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Mkhombo, Sibongile Margaret. "The status of indigenous music in the South African school curriculum with special reference to IsiZulu." Thesis, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/26204.
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The research raises concern for the practical and theoretical problems confronting pre-primary to secondary schools regarding the implementation of indigenous African music in the present curriculum. This research investigates the status of indigenous African music in the South African school’s curriculum for the purposes of its inclusion with special reference to isiZulu. The study utilised qualitative interview, observation method and existing documents for the collection of data. Participants were asked to highlight the importance of including indigenous African music in the present curriculum as a core subject, and secondly, what can be done to promote indigenous African music to South African communities? This study records the importance of isiZulu belief systems, customs and performance tradition. It looks at indigenous isiZulu music both past and present, what it offers to the community of South Africans.
The research reveals that isiZulu music can be used to recall enjoyable commemorations, express peace, and happiness and motivates team spirit as it can organise activities geared towards community development if included in the school curriculum. It also nurtures social integration, which can enhance understanding in learning. Some songs are composed to instil socio-cultural values in establishing social relationships amongst the individuals and societies, also consolidate social bonds and create patriotic feelings. Music also contributes to the child’s development and psychological abilities. The study further revealed that the battle for the soul of African Languages is not yet over. Rather than the languages becoming increasingly appreciated and embraced by the owners, there is evidently a decline (Salawu, 2001). This worrisome decline is marked by the advancement of technology and craves modernity; they see everything (culture, indigenous African music and language) as primitive. It is apparent that the originality and excellence in African culture and languages are quickly vanishing, as there remains only a small indication of that genuine tradition. The study therefore, helps Black South Africans generally to relate to their folk-lore and to maintain their cultural principles, values and rebuild their sense of national identity and will also work to broaden the curriculum in schools from Foundation Phase to the FET Phase.Linguistics and Modern Languages
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Rambau, Lutanani Annah. "Music in the making: a case study of the Caravan Traditional Dance Group." Diss., 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/19625.
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Text in EnglishThis case study of the Caravan Traditional Dance group profiles Musisinyani Mackson Mavunda‘s contribution to Tsonga music and dance performing arts. The lack of documentation of the work of Tsonga local traditional composers and choreographers is well-known in South Africa. This is echoed by Kidula (2006: 109), stating that ‗many studies from the continent have few outlets in the global academy, inasmuch as the work done by foreign researchers is barely known in much of Africa‘. A few years in the future, it will not be known who the composer of a certain song was, and what their intentions were in composing that particular song. Naturally the composers want to send a message to the community and sometimes to entertain the community or compose for a certain ritual. Composers need a considerable amount of planning and carefully chosen words, choreography and so on and this becomes apparent when taking into account the time and effort they put into composing a song. In response to this problem and by placing the composers‘ narratives at the centre, the study examines the role of the founder of the Caravan Traditional Dance group (CTD), Musisinyani Mackson Mavunda, and his contribution to Tsonga music and dance performing arts. This requires a critical examination of all aspects of his CTD professional career: his musical beginnings, teaching career, teaching of Tsonga traditional dances and his social and cultural heritage in the society. The key finding of this study was that Musisinyani distinguishes the humanity of others, which is Ubuntu philosophy. Music is power. It has power from within the composer. This is seen through the composer‘s confidence, assertiveness and motivation when composing songs. Music has the power to do; this is the listeners‘ choice. Through the power of music, people can gain skills; they may be productive and can network and be innovative. Music also has power over people, and the power to influence communities, thereby helping unite community members to work towards a common cause to achieve a common goal. It therefore gives communities strength and cohesion. As the community they have the power to challenge the status quo and to encourage one another.
Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology
M.Mus.
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Le, Roux Ina. "Net die woorde het oorgebly : 'n godsdienswetenskaplike interpretasie van Venda-volksverhale (Ngano)." Thesis, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/17185.
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Text in AfrikaansDie eerste hoofstuk omskryf die begrip ngano, daarna volg 'n uiteensetting hoe die Venda mondelinge tradisie in die verlede gefunksioneer het en word die huidige aard en posisie van die verskynsel in die lewe van die gemeenskap gedefinieer. Veranderende sosio-ekonomiese en politieke kragte het die tradisionele lewenswyse van die Venda-mense in so 'n mate versteur dat die mondelinge tradisie en die stem van die storieverteller nie meer hoog waardeer word deur die moderne geslag nie. Die teoretiese uitgangspunt van hierdie tesis aanvaar dat religie 'n radikaal integrerend funksie het wat chaos in sinvolle patrone inkorporeer. Dialekties verbind aan die eerste beginsel van religie is die inherente drang van die mens se gees om alle gegewe limiete te transendeer. Vanuit hierdie fokus kan ngano as religieuse artikulasies interpreteer word wat chaos in sinvolle patrone uitdruk, en waarin oak opstand teen bestaande orde en tradisionele aannames uitgespreek word. In bree trekke skets die tweede hoofstuk die historiese agtergrond van die Venda-mense vanaf 800 nC tot en met die resente politieke veranderinge van 1994 in die Noordelike Provinsie. Die tweede deel van die hoofstuk bied 'n uiteensetting van hul religio-filosofiese agtergrond en tesame met die geskiedkundige gebeure dien dit as interpretatiewe konteks vir hierdie oeroue verhale wat van die een geslag na die ander oorgelewer is. In die volgende nege hoofstukke verskyn vyftig volksverhale wat in agt verskillende areas in Venda gedokumenteer is. Elke verhaal is vooraf voorsien van 'n opsomming van die inhoud van die verhaal asook 'n interpretasie van die verhaal deur die verteller self of verduidelikings van haar helpers. Die oorspronklike Venda-teks word gegee in die presiese woorde van die verteller met daarby die Afrikaanse vertaling. 'n Terna wat hehaaldelik voorkom is die opstand van die magteloses (die kind, die vrou of niksseggende persoon) teen magtiges (die koning, die man, dominerende familielede of tradisionele strukture). Ander gewilde temas is die ellende van hongersnood, die aanwending en voorkoms van toorkragte en bonatuurlike transformasies. Ten slotte is daar drie Sankambe-verhale waarin die fantastiese avonture van hasie, die aartbedrieer, wat op grand van blote vernuf oorleef, humoristies vertel word. Ofskoon daar duidelike artikulasies van verset en kritiek teen die tradisionele orde en teen magtiges is, waag ngano dit selde buite die tradisioneel religieus-filosofiese grense.
The first chapter outlines the concept ngano, thereafter the function of the Venda oral tradition in the past is described and the present nature and position of the phenomenon in community living is defined. Changing socio-economic and political forces disturbed traditional Venda life-style to such an extent that the oral tradition and the voice of the storyteller are not highly regarded by the modern generation. The theoretical point of departure of this thesis accepts the radical integrative function of religion ordering chaos into meaningful patterns. Dialectically tied to this first principle of religion is the inherent urgency of the human spirit to transcend all given limits. Viewed thus, ngano can be interpreted as religious utterances in which chaos is expressed in meaningful patterns and where resistance is articulated against existing order and traditional assumptions. Chapter two sketches the historical background of the Venda people from 800 AD up to recent political changes of 1994 in the Northern Province. The second part of this chapter presents an exposition of their religio-philosophic background which, together with the historical events provide an interpretative context for these ancient stories handed down from one generation to the next. Fifty folk tales (ngano) appear in the following nine chapters documented in eight different areas in Venda. Every narrative is introduced by a summary of the content of the story together with an interpretation by narrator and assistants. The Venda text is given first adhering as closely as possible to the original words of the narrator. Every line is followed by an Afrikaans translation. A recurring theme in ngano is the powerless (child, wife or insignificant person) resisting the powerful (king, husband/man, dominating family members or unyielding traditional structures). Other popular themes are the misery of famine, application and occurrence of witchcraft and supernatural transformations. Lastly three Sankambe-stories are documented in which the fantastic antics of the hare, the trickster in Venda folk tales who survives by sheer cunning, are humorously narrated. Although there are distinct expressions of resistance and criticism against the existing order and dominating powers, ngano seldom ventures beyond traditional religious and philosophic boundaries.
Religious Studies & Arabic
D. Litt et Phil. (Religious Studies)
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Mkhombo, S. M. (Sibongile Margaret). "The status of indigenous music in the South African school curriculum with special reference to isiZulu." Thesis, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/25896.
Full textAbstract:
Text in EnglishThe research raises concern for the practical and theoretical problems confronting pre-primary to secondary schools regarding the implementation of indigenous African music in the present curriculum. This research investigates the status of indigenous African music in the South African school’s curriculum for the purposes of its inclusion with special reference to isiZulu. The study utilised qualitative interview, observation method and existing documents for the collection of data. Participants were asked to highlight the importance of including indigenous African music in the present curriculum as a core subject, and secondly, what can be done to promote indigenous African music to South African communities? This study records the importance of isiZulu belief systems, customs and performance tradition. It looks at indigenous isiZulu music both past and present, what it offers to the community of South Africans. The research reveals that isiZulu music can be used to recall enjoyable commemorations, express peace, and happiness and motivates team spirit as it can organise activities geared towards community development if included in the school curriculum. It also nurtures social integration, which can enhance understanding in learning. Some songs are composed to instil socio-cultural values in establishing social relationships amongst the individuals and societies, also consolidate social bonds and create patriotic feelings. Music also contributes to the child’s development and psychological abilities. The study further revealed that the battle for the soul of African Languages is not yet over. Rather than the languages becoming increasingly appreciated and embraced by the owners, there is evidently a decline (Salawu, 2001). This worrisome decline is marked by the advancement of technology and craves modernity; they see everything (culture, indigenous African music and language) as primitive. It is apparent that the originality and excellence in African culture and languages are quickly vanishing, as there remains only a small indication of that genuine tradition. The study therefore, helps Black South Africans generally to relate to their folk-lore and to maintain their cultural principles, values and rebuild their sense of national identity and will also work to broaden the curriculum in schools from Foundation Phase to the FET Phase.
Linguistics and Modern Languages
D. Phil. (Languages, Linguistics and Literature)
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Ntsihlele, Flora Mpho. "Games,gestures and learning in Basotho children's play songs." Thesis, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/1768.
Full textAbstract:
Colonialism in Africa had an impact on the indigenous peoples of Africa and this is shown in some of their games. The purpose of this study is to gain deeper insight into Basotho children's games and to demonstrate that the Western ideas of music and games are not necessarily the same as Basotho folk children's conceptions. The literature on Basotho children's games is reviewed though not much has been contributed by early and present Basotho writers who have generally approached it from the angle of literature without transcribing the songs. The Sesotho word for games (lipapali) embraces entertainment but a further investigation of it shows that aspects of learning of which the children were aware in some cases and in others they were not aware, are present. These are supported by musical examples and texts. The definition of play versus games is treated (with regard to infants and children) and these two concepts are still receiving constant attention and investigation by scholars and researchers as the words are synonymous and can be misleading. Infants' play is unorganised and spontaneous while games are organised structures. Furthermore, play and games are important in child development education. In this study, they are given attention in order to lay the foundation for the understanding and interpretation of games used in both cultures.
It is a misconception that African children's games are accompanied with music in the Western sense. Hence, the word `music' in Sesotho children's games takes on a different connotation from those in the West. Music' in Sesotho children's games embraces not only tunes that are sung, but game verses chanted in a rhythmic manner as opposed to spoken verse. Yet, mino (music) exists in Sesotho and is equivalent to the Western idea. These chanted rhythms and games are analysed against the backdrop of specific cultural dimensions for children depending on the function of the game played. The results of this study indicated that though the idea of music in children's games is not the same, games are an educational in character building and learning. Recommendations are made for educationists and music educators.ART HIST, VIS ARTS & MUSIC
DLITT ET PHIL (MUSICOLOGY)
Books on the topic "Traditional African songs"
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Mwaniki, Henry Stanley Kabeca. Categories and substance of Embu traditional songs. [Nairobi]: Kenya Literature Bureau, 1986.
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Mwaniki, Henry Stanley Kabeca. Categories and substance of Embu traditional songs and dances. Nairobi: Kenya Literature Bureau, 1986.
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Songs of West Africa: A collection of over 80 traditional West African folk songs and chants in 6 languages with translations, annotations, and performance notes ... Forest Knolls, CA: Alokli West African Dance, 2000.
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David, Locke. Kpegisu: A war drum of the Ewe. Tempe, AZ: White Cliffs Media Co., 1992.
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Magbaily, Fyle C. Tradition, song, and chant of the Yalunka. Freetown: People's Educational Association of Sierra Leone, 1986.
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African banjo echoes in Appalachia: A study of folk traditions. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995.
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Orawo, Charles Nyakiti. Lwimbo: Busia-Luhya song dance traditions. Kisumu, Kenya: Lake Publishers & Enterprises, 2002.
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Stewart, Carlyle Fielding. Joy songs, trumpet blasts, and hallelujah shouts!: Sermons in the African-American preaching tradition. Lima, Ohio: CSS Pub. Co., 1997.
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W, Turner Frederick. Remembering song: Encounters with the New Orleans jazz tradition. New York: Da Capo Press, 1994.
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Sumaili, Tobias W. C. The functions of the texts of songs in Nsenga oral narratives. [Lusaka?: Division for Cultural Research, Institute for African Studies, University of Zambia, 1986.
Find full textBook chapters on the topic "Traditional African songs"
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Nhlekisana, Rosaleen Oabona Brankie. "Orality and Technology: Transforming Traditional Songs to Popular Music." In The Palgrave Handbook of African Oral Traditions and Folklore, 907–23. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55517-7_45.
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Ramey, Lauri. "Slave Songs and the Lyric Poetry Traditions." In Slave Songs and the Birth of African American Poetry, 17–55. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, 2008. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9780230610163_2.
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Saboro, Emmanuel. "War Songs: Slavery, Oral Tradition, and Identity Construction." In The Palgrave Handbook of African Oral Traditions and Folklore, 437–52. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55517-7_22.
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Walters, Tracey L. "The Destruction and Reconstruction of Classical and Cultural Myth in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, Beloved, and The Bluest Eye." In African American Literature and the Classicist Tradition, 99–132. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, 2007. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9780230608870_5.
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"Protest Songs from the Textile Mills and Coalfields." In Writing Appalachia, edited by Katherine Ledford and Theresa Lloyd, 176–80. University Press of Kentucky, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.5810/kentucky/9780813178790.003.0026.
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Protest songs have sustained strikers on picket lines, memorialized disasters, galvanized support for unions, sparked folk revivals, and established Appalachia in the national consciousness as a site of labor struggle. In Coal Dust on the Fiddle (1943), a collection of songs from the bituminous coal mines, George Korson explains that the folk songs of immigrant miners, traditional ballads of the Southern Appalachians, and African American spirituals combined in music that documented and commemorated life in the mines....
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Richards-Greaves, Gillian. "“Beat de Drum and de Spirit Gon Get Up”." In Rediasporization, 95–122. University Press of Mississippi, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.14325/mississippi/9781496831156.003.0004.
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This chapter examines how the repertoire, form, content, and performance styles of traditional kweh-kweh songs and dances are performed and innovated at Come to My Kwe-Kwe to entertain, instruct, and educate the African-Guyanese diaspora in New York City. Accompanied by “found” instruments, synthesizers, djembes, and an assortment of percussive instruments, attendees sing traditional kweh-kweh songs, Guyanese folk songs, and musical genres from around the world. They sing using coded language, double-entendre, and unmasked (raw) speech to edify the community and facilitate inclusion. As attendees sing and dance in the ganda (performance space), they address diverse matrimonial topics, particularly sex. In fact, the volunteer bride and groom are expected to wine (gyrate) to demonstrate sexual prowess, or risk ridicule from the larger community. Some African-Guyanese-Americans disapprove of the musical innovations at Come to My Kwe-Kwe, but others view the changes as crucial to the survival of the ritual and the African-Guyanese community.
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Drwal, Małgorzata. "The Hybridity of South African Working-Class Literature." In Working-Class Literature(s) Volume II. Historical and International Perspectives, 165–208. Stockholm University Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.16993/bbf.g.
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In this chapter I present an overview of the most prominent trends in South African working-class literature from the beginning of the 20th century until 1994. Since its emergence, South African working class was a heterogeneous formation which encompassed diverse ethnicities, both of European and non-European origin. Each of them created its own literature and culture, using various languages, incorporating traditional elements and means of expression, and merging them with borrowed foreign discourses and literary devices belonging to the repertoire of socialist literature that had been created mostly in the Soviet Union, the USA and other European countries. Consequently, South African working-class literature can be conceived of as conglomerate of heteroglot hybrid forms and manifestations of a subversive counter-discourse of protest literature. The forms presented here include writings of European socialists commenting on South African situation, novels utilizing the Jim goes to Joburg plot pattern, drama incorporating the Soviet socialist realism and references to the Afrikaans farm novel, Afrikaans folk tunes functioning as protest songs, and black workers praise poetry based on tribal oral conventions. As a carrier of a new working-class identity, this literature promoted a modern urban model which, nevertheless, relied on the continuity with local rural traditions.
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Jacobsen, Kristina M. "Radmilla’s Voice." In Sound of Navajo Country. University of North Carolina Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469631868.003.0004.
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Chapter Three focuses on the story of the first biracial, Navajo-African American “Miss Navajo Nation,” Radmilla Cody (born to Tp’ááschí’í, or Red Cheek People Clan). Fluent in Navajo and raised by her maternal grandmother on the Navajo Nation, I show how Radmilla’s singing voice, by performing “traditional” songs with melismatic, R & B inflection in the Navajo language, signals both inclusion and exclusion within Navajo communities. Here, sounding other than “Navajo” is a way of refusing to adhere to the ascribed status of Diné identity, including phenotype and what it means to “look Navajo.” Radmilla’s voice is a signifier of the intricacies of Diné social difference and as a meeting point of the singular and the social: as something innate and idiosyncratic to each singer and speaker, Radmilla’s voice is also something that is learned, socially acquired, and culturally inscribed.
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Dworkin, Ira. "George Washington Williams’s Stern Duty of History." In Congo Love Song. University of North Carolina Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469632711.003.0002.
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This chapter begins at Hampton Institute in 1889 where Williams traveled after meeting in Belgium with King Leopold II. Williams, whose interest in the Congo predates the 1884-1885 Berlin Conference, went to Hampton to enlist African American students to travel with him to Africa, which framed his Congo trip within a tradition of ongoing African American interest in Africa. Williams’s initial optimism for the Congo quickly soured, and he wrote a series of open letters--to Leopold, U.S. President Benjamin Harrison, and railroad magnate Collis P. Huntington--that inspired opposition to Leopold’s regime that continued well after Williams’s untimely death in 1891. An examination of Williams’s struggles to develop and define a relationship to the Belgian empire against the backdrop of the history of the transatlantic slave trade reveals an African American connection to Africa that is grounded in a global political landscape of emancipation and anti-imperialism.
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"The West African Song Tradition." In Gullah Spirituals, 13–35. University of South Carolina Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv19cw9mv.5.
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