African Oral Literature as Sociopolitical Commentary: A Comparative IsiXhosa-Afrikaans Approach
A comparative isiXhosa-Afrikaans approach
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25159/2663-6697/11233Keywords:
Oral literature, comparative oral poetry, folktales, Khoikhoi, Afrikaans, isiXhosa, historic, multiculturalism, sociopolitical commentaryAbstract
The history, identities, languages and cultures of amaXhosa, Khoikhoi and San communities are intimately connected and hybrid. This is carefully documented by Jeff Peires in his seminal work on the history of amaXhosa, The House of Phalo. Many of the descendants of these communities also contributed to the development of the Afrikaans language. The post-1980 consensus within Afrikaans historical linguistics is that the language developed as a result of intercultural contact—what is known as the interlanguage theory—according to which Afrikaans developed as a result of different peoples from different languages speaking a form of Dutch, and the linguistic stabilisation that ensued from the linguistic contact. This intercultural contact is noted by Hein Willemse. It therefore stands to reason that some of the oral literary genres told through isiXhosa and Afrikaans (and prior to that Khoikhoi and San languages and dialects) would have linkages and shared techniques. This article compares genres such as Afrikaans folktales and storytelling from the Northern Cape and Namibia with those of amaXhosa from the Eastern Cape region and elsewhere in relation to points of similarity, thematic commonalities and techniques. This debate will also be broadened to other genres such as comparative oral poetry. The analysis is supported theoretically by taking into account historical factors and multiculturalism, which contribute to the complex sociopolitical factors that influence southern African society. Commonalities regarding the evolution of the isiXhosa and Afrikaans languages and the relationship between these languages is explored, for example the use of borrowings from Afrikaans into isiXhosa and also borrowings from Khoikhoi into isiXhosa. The borrowings show how these languages (and cultures) are intimately connected and that there is also constantly language shift, even today. To date, there has been little or no research that traces the linguistic relationship in relation not only to the evolution of isiXhosa and Afrikaans languages, but also the oral literary genres that are underpinned by these languages. This is done against a sociopolitical and historical theoretical paradigm.
References
Alexander, Neville. 2002. An Ordinary Country: Issues in the Transition from Apartheid to Democracy in South Africa. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press. https://www.ajol.info/index.php/asr/article/view/23136.
Barber, Karin, and Paulo De Moraes Farias, eds. 1989. Discourse and Its Disguises: The Interpretation of African Oral Texts. Birmingham University African Studies Series No. 1. Birmingham: University of Birmingham. https://lib.ugent.be/catalog/rug01:002506233.
Branford, William, and John S. Claughton. 1995. “Mutual Lexical Borrowings among Some Languages of Southern Africa: Xhosa, Afrikaans and English.” In Language and Social History: Studies in South African Sociolinguistics, edited by R. Mesthrie, 209–21. Cape Town: David Phillip.
Canonici, Noverino. 1993. The Zulu Folktale Tradition. Durban: University of Natal.
Comaroff, John. 1975. “Talking Politics: Oratory and Authority in a Tswana Chiefdom.” In Political Language and Oratory in Traditional Societies, edited by M. Bloch, 141–61. London: Academic Press.
Crystal, David. 2000. Language Death. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Esau, Katrina. 2021. !Qhoi nja Tjhoi—Skilpad en Volstruis—Tortoise and Ostrich. Cape Town: David Philip Publishers.
Finnegan, Ruth. 1970. Oral Literature in Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Groenewald, Gerald. 2019. “Slaves, Khoikhoi and the Genesis of Afrikaans: The Development of a Historiography, ca. 1890s–1990s.” South African Journal of Cultural History 33 (2): 1–24.
Hall, Stuart. 1996. “Introduction: Who Needs ‘Identity’?” In Questions of Cultural Identity, edited by Stuart Hall and Paul du Gay, 1–17. London: Sage Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446221907.n1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446221907.n1
Hodgson, Janet. 1982. The God of the Xhosa: A Study of the Origins and Development of the Traditional Concept of the Supreme Being. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
Johnson, Stembele. 2020. “A Socio-Political Analysis of the Adoption of Certain Amaxhosa Surnames.” MA diss., Rhodes University. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/164298.
Kaschula, Russell. 1997. “Oral Poetry and Its Reception: Past and Present.” South African Journal of Folklore Studies 8 (2): 1–17. https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/AJA10168427_84.
Kaschula, Russell. 2001. African Oral Literature: Functions in Contemporary Contexts. Cape Town: New Africa Book Education.
Kaschula, Russell. 2002. The Bones of the Ancestors Are Shaking: Xhosa Oral Poetry in Context. Cape Town: Juta Press.
Kaschula, Russell. 2006. Emthonjeni. Cape Town: New Africa Books.
Krog, Antjie. 1994. “Focus on the Imbongi.” Die Suid-Afrikaan 49: 12–15.
Krog, Antjie. 1995. Gedigte 1989–1995. Groenkloof: Hond.
Kuse, Wandile. 1973. “The Traditional Praise Poetry of the Xhosa: Iziduko and Izibongo.” MA diss., University of Wisconsin.
Meintjes, Johannes. 1973. The Voortrekkers: The Story of the Great Trek and the Making of South Africa. London: Cassell and Company.
Mokapela, Sebolelo. 2021. “This Is How You Pronounce Gqeberha, the New Name for PE.” Independent Online, February 24, 2021. Accessed November 14, 2022. https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/eastern-cape/video-this-is-how-you-pronounce-gqeberha-the-new-name-for-pe-704ee6f8-524a-4d32-9a95-a2e5e28879b8.
Motsei, Anastacia Sara, and Pule Alexis Phindane. 2021. “Multiculturalism, Orality and Folklore in South Africa.” In The Palgrave Handbook of African Oral Traditions and Folklore, edited by Akintunde Akinyemi and Toyin Falola, 489–507. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55517-7_25. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55517-7_25
Neethling, S. J. 1991. “Eating Forbidden Fruit in a Xhosa Oral Narrative.” South African Journal of African Languages 11 (1): 83–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/02572117.1991.10586896. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02572117.1991.10586896
Okpewho, Isidore. 2008. Foreword to The Sacred Door and Other Stories: Cameroon Folktales of the Beba, by Makuchi, ix–xv. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.
Opland, Jeff. 1980. Anglo-Saxon Oral Poetry: A Study of the Traditions. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Opland, Jeff. 1983. Xhosa Oral Poetry: Aspects of a Black South African Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Oyeniyi, Bukola Adeyemi. 2021. “Orality, History and Historical Reconstruction.” In The Palgrave Handbook of African Oral Traditions and Folklore, edited by Akintunde Akinyemi and Toyin Falola, 83–104. Cham Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55517-7_4. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55517-7_4
Peires, Jeffrey B. 1981. The House of Phalo: A History of the Xhosa People in the Days of Their Independence. Johannesburg: Ravan Press.
Peires, Jeffey B. 1988. “Piet Draghoender’s Lament.” Social Dynamics: A Journal of African Studies 14 (2): 6–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/02533958808458448. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02533958808458448
Peires, Jeffey B. 1989. The Dead Will Arise: Nongqawuse and the Great Xhosa Cattle-Killing Movement of 1856–7. Johannesburg: Ravan Press.
Scully, William. 1913. Reminisces of a South African Pioneer. London: T Fisher Unwin.
Staphorst, Luan. 2020. “‘… The Broken Dutch They Understood and Spoke …’: Die ǀXam-Boesmans, die Bleek en Lloyd-Argief, en die Afrikaanse Taalgeskiedenis.” Tydskrif vir Nederlands en Afrikaans 27 (2): 3–30. Accessed November 14, 2022. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/355912834_the_broken_Dutch_they_understood_and_spoke_Die_xam-Boesmans_die_Bleek_en_Lloyd-argief_en_die_Afrikaanse_taalgeskiedenis.
Staphorst, Luan. 2022. “Decolonising the Death of |Xam: Tracking the Origins of the Language of Folklore in the Karoo.” MSc dissertation, University of Oxford. Accessed November 14, 2022. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/362002165_Decolonising_the_death_of_xam_tracking_the_origins_of_the_language_of_folklore_in_the_Karoo.
Van Niekerk, Jacomien. 2007. “Biografie in die Pryslied: Die Bydrae van Antjie Krog naas Twee Xhosa Pryssangers.” Tydskrif vir Letterkunde 44 (2): 29–45. https://doi.org/10.4314/tvl.v44i2.29789. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4314/tvl.v44i2.29789
Van Rensburg, Christo. 2018. Finding Afrikaans. Pretoria: Lapa Publishers.
Willemse, Hein. 2003. “Textual Production and Contested Histories in a Performance of the Namibian Storyteller David Plaatjies.” Research in African Literatures 34 (3): 27–45. https://doi.org/10.2979/RAL.2003.34.3.27. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/ral.2003.0093
Willemse, Hein. 2004. “The Politics of Narrating Cinderella in Namibia.” Tydskrif vir Letterkunde 41 (2): 69–83. https://doi.org/10.4314/tvl.v41i2.29675. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4314/tvl.v41i2.29675
Willemse, Hein. 2021. “Elfrieda Binga’s ‘Berseba’: Constructing History and Identity in a Rural Namibian Village.” In Oral Literary Performance in Africa: Beyond Text, edited by Nduka Otiono and Chiji Akoma, 23–43. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003111887-3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003111887-3
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright will be vested in Unisa Press. However, as long as you do not use the article in ways which would directly conflict with the publisher's business interests, you retain the right to use your own article (provided you acknowledge the published version of the article) as follows:
- to make further copies of all or part of the published article for your use in classroom teaching;
- to make copies of the final accepted version of the article for internal distribution within your institution, or to place it on your own or your institution's website or repository, or on a site that does not charge for access to the article, but you must arrange not to make the final accepted version of the article available to the public until 18 months after the date of acceptance;
- to reuse all or part of this material in a compilation of your own works or in a textbook of which you are the author, or as the basis for a conference presentation.
Accepted 2022-10-10
Published 2023-03-24