Mwingilianotanzu Katika Fasihi Simulizi ya Kiafrika: Mfano wa Embalu na Mwaka Kogwa
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Date
2015
Authors
Simiyu, W. F.
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Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
This study focuses on multigenerism in the performance of embalu and mwaka kogwa rituals. The research was occasioned by the need to up the fight for the rightful space and status of African languages and literatures and to fully exploit a lacuna that resulted from earlier researchers who concetrated on analysing genres of African Oral Literature in isolation. The study‟s main objective was to demonstrate how the two rituals are constructed and helped to perform their functions through multigenerism, which is influanced by the artists, the audience, the context and specific stages. A blend of Ethnopoetics and Emic Theory guided the collection and interpretation; where Ethnopoetics helped the researcher to collect and analyse data by mingling and interacting with the community under investigation, while the Emic Theory quided the researcher into utilizing the insiders‟ views in making sense out of the data collected. An Ethnomethodological approach which included participation, observation and interviews was used to collect songs, praise poetry, comedies and chants. The findings are presented using descriptions, pictures, charts and a documentary film. The research findings show that, the two rituals are constructed and empowered to perform their fuctions through a continous interplay of inseparable genres which constantly interrelate through processes like intertextuality, dialogism, genre eclipsing, generic chorusing and genre reconstruction, while in performance. These genre dynamics are influenced by the stages in the two rituals, the artists, the audience and the context of performance. In a nutshell, this study has underscored the fact that, African Oral Literature is a complete system of knowledge, made up of genres which can not separeted while in performance. Therefore, the research has contributed in the understanding of the nature of African Oral Literature in performance, and thus suggesting an alternative way of classifying and analysing it.
Description
Department of Kiswahili & African Languages, 258p. 2015