Showing posts with label xhosa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label xhosa. Show all posts

Sunday, November 15, 2015

27

IZITHAKAZELO OF NGUNI CLANS

  • Sunday, November 15, 2015
  • Samuel Albert
  • Below are some izithakazelo (Kinship group praises)  for some nguni or ngoni clans collected from the web. As you may notice some are in Zulu, Xhosa and other nguni languages. You can use http://www.isizulu.net to get the meaning of the words. This site has an online zulu dictionary that you may also use to translate the ngoni songs found on this site. Remember that isiZulu, isiNgoni, isiXhosa, siSwati and isindebele are all nguni languages and are therefore mutually intelligible.

    Note: Isithakazelo (plural Izithakazelo)are poems praising important people e.g. ancestors within a Nguni clan. They are the story of a clan. The shortened version is used as a fond greeting of a clan member.

    Zithakazelo zakwaMsimang (now known as Simango in Malawi according to GT Nurse)

    Thabizolo
    Nonkosi
    Mhlehlela
    Nhlokozabafo
    Sdindi Kasiphuki
    Sihlula amadoda
    Mphand`umnkenkenke
    Mlotshwa...

    Zithakazelo zakwa Khumalo

    Mntungwa!
    Mbulaz'omnyama
    Abathi bedla, umuntu bebe bemyenga ngendaba.
    Abadl'izimf'ezimbili Ikhambi laphuma lilinye.
    Lobengula kaMzilikazi, Mzilikazi kaMashobana
    Shobana noGasa kaZikode, Zikode kaMkhatshwa.
    Mabaso owabas'entabeni, Kwadliwa ilanga lishona
    Bantungw'abancwaba!
    Zindlovu ezibantu, Zindlovu ezimacocombela.
    Nina bakwaMawela, Owawel'iZambezi ngezikhali.
    Nina bakaNkomo zavul'inqaba, Zavul'inqaba ngezimpondo kwelaseNgome.
    Nina enal'ukudl'umlenze KwaBulawayo!
    Mantungw'amahle! Bantwana benkosi, Nina bakwaNtokela!
    Ndabezitha!
    Maqhaw'amakhulu

    Izithakazelo zakwa-Dlamini (Nkosi)

    Nkosi
    Dlamini Hlubi
    Ludonga LaMavuso
    Abay`embo bebuyelela
    Sidwaba sikaLuthuli
    Wena esingangcwaba sibuye noMlandakazi
    Abawela lubombo ngekuhlehletela
    Nina baSobhuza uSomhlolo
    Umsazi kaSobhuza
    Mlangeni
    Nina bakwakusa neLanga
    Nina bakwaWawawa
    Lokothwana
    Sibalukhulu
    Nina beNgwane
    Nina besicoco sangenhlana
    Nina beKunene

    ezakwa Khambule

    Mncube!
    Mzilankatha!
    Nina bakwaNkomo zilal'uwaca
    Ezamadojeyana zilal'amankengana
    Mlotshwa!
    Malandel'ilanga
    Mpangazitha!
    Magosolo!
    Nina basebuhlen'obungangcakazi
    Abadl'umbilini wenkomo kungafanele
    Kwakufanel'udliwe ngabalandakazi
    Nina bakaDambuza Mthabathe
    Nina basemaNcubeni
    Enabalekel'uShaka
    Naziphons'emfuleni
    Kwakhuz'abantu banifihla
    Naphenduk'abakwaKhambule
    Nafik'eSwazini
    Naphenduk'uNkambule
    Nina baseSilutshana
    Nin'enakhelana noMbunda
    Nina bakaMaweni

    'Thina bakwa Mhlongo sithi'

    Makhedama!
    Soyengwase!
    Nina bakaBhebhe kaMthendeka
    Nina bakaSoqubele onjengegundane
    Nina baseSiweni
    KwaMpuku yakwaMselemusi
    KwaNogwence webaya
    Zingwazi zempi yakwaNdunu
    Njoman'eyaduk'iminyakanyaka
    Yatholakal'onyakeni wesine
    Yabuye yatholakala ngowesikhombisa
    Langeni
    Owavel'elangeni.
    Ngaphandle ke uma ngingatshelwanga kahle ekhaya.

    Izithakazelo zakwa-Ndlovu.

    Gatsheni!
    Boya benyathi!
    Buyasongwa buyasombuluka.
    Mpongo kaZingelwayo!
    Nina bakwandlovu zidl' ekhaya,
    Ngokweswel' abelusi.
    Nina bakwakhumbula amagwala.
    Nina bakwademazane ntombazana
    Nina bakwasihlangu sihle.
    Mthiyane!
    Ngokuthiy'amadod'emazibukweni.
    Nina bakwaMdubusi!

    Izithakazelo Zakwa-gumede

    Mnguni! Qwabe!
    Mnguni kaYeyeye
    osidlabehlezi
    BakaKhondlo kaPhakathwayo
    Abathi bedla, babeyenga umuntu ngendaba
    Abathi "dluya kubeyethwe."
    Kanti bahlinza imbuzi.
    Bathi umlobokazi ubeyethe kayikhuni
    Sidika lolodaba!
    Phakathwayo!
    Wena kaMalandela
    Ngokulandel' izinkomo zamadoda,
    Amazala-nkosi lana!
    Mpangazitha!

    Izithakazelo zakwaMabaso

    Mntungwa,
    Ndabezitha,
    Mbulazi ,
    wen' odl' umunt' umyenga ngendaba,
    wen' omanz' akhuphuk' intaba

    Zithakazelo zakwaNgwenya

    Ngwenya(South African version)
    Mntimande,
    Bambolunye,
    zingaba mbili,
    zifuze konina,
    ekhabonina,
    mabuya,
    bengasabuyi
    baye babuya
    emangwaneni ,
    nungunde,
    wakhothe,
    bayosala beziloyanisa

    Zithakazelo zakwaZulu

    Zulu kaMalandela;
    Zulu omnyama ondlela zimhlophe.
    Nina baka Phunga no Mageba.
    Ndaba; nina bakaMjokwane kaNdaba.
    Nina benkayishana kaMenzi eyaphunga umlaza ngameva.
    Mnguni, Gumede.
    Ndabezitha

    Izithakazelo zakwa zungu:

    Gwabini,
    manzini,
    geda,
    nyama kayishe eshaya ngamaphephezeli
    ncwane,
    hamashe,
    geda,
    wena owaphuma ngenoni emgodini,
    wena owakithi le emaheyeni,sengwayo

    I have just noted that some people have been trying to search for the meaning of the word ndabezitha used above and in some Zulu films such as Shaka Zulu below.

    Ndabezitha is the one of the praise and respect words used when the Zulus and other Ngunis want to acknowledge loyalty to a Nguni royalty. Just as in English one would say, 'your majesty or his royal majesty or your royal majesty' to their king, in Zulu and other nguni words you use the praise word ndabezitha. The word is a contraction of indaba yezitha literally meaning 'matter of the enemies'



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    Monday, July 11, 2011

    0

    ZULU AND XHOSA PRAISE POETRY AND SONG

  • Monday, July 11, 2011
  • Samuel Albert
  •  by DAVID RYCROFT 

    Part of the following article has previously appeared in a paper presented to the Anthropology Section of the 124th Annual Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held at Manchester, August/September, 1962.

    The boundary between song and some forms of verse or declamation which are nowadays classified as "oral literature" is a blurred one and calls for co-operation between linguists and ethnomusicologists. Very little study has yet been made of musical characteristics found in the border-line art of praise-poetry or praise-singing which is practiced very widely throughout Africa. Among the Eastern and South-Eastern Bantu, what small evidence there is reveals considerable differences between the traditional style of delivery associated with Zulu izibongo praises,1 and that, for example, of the Heroic Recitations of the Banyankore, a Bantu people of East Africa. A. N. Tucker2 has recorded some of the latter and they were taken as the subject for a thesis by H. F. R. Morris.3 They are uttered with quite phenomenal rapidity and the overall intonation contour of each line is a gradually descending one, without the observance of fixed musical pitches.

    Zulu practice, in the South-East, is totally different. In a number of recordings of iZibongo, by two different reciters,4 four recurrent levels of pitch resembling the "scale" of notes in a piece of music appear to predominate and might be said to serve as a basic tonal structure (in the musical sense) throughout the recitation. Rudimentary evidence of reciting conventions among other South-Eastern Bantu such as the Xhosa, Sotho and Venda seems to suggest that this four-note, quasi-musical style is practised only by the Zulu, in this area. Other peoples, from evidence available so far, seem to deviate less from normal speech when they recite praises. 

    The four predominant notes used in the Zulu izibongo recordings mentioned, could be represented roughly by the Tonic Solfa symbols doh', te, sob, and Dob. Low Dob occurs only finally in a stanza and may tail off to lower, indeterminate pitch just as the final syllable fades into silence. Syllables taking one or other of the higher notes do not always main- tain absolutely level pitch. Glides to or from one or other of the notes, or from one to another, are frequent, but this is also the case in true Zulu song. 

    My teacher, the late Dr. B. W. Vilakazi, left us with a long-standing riddle when he made the statement that "It lyric poetry was originally intended to be sung, then this quality of poetry still exists in Zulu. The poet has to tune his voice to some melody when he recites his imaginative descriptions".5 

    He added the observation that tone in Zulu is "semantic" and that this "semanticism of tone, though wide in the spoken language is more apparent in the recitation of verse." From the last statement, one gathers firstly, that the "melody" in izibongo recitation does not violate the speech-tones. This certainly turns out to be true. There is no single, constant melodic sequence - pitch movement is conditioned by the words. 

    But there are four possible notes, and Zulu, in common with most other Bantu languages, is a two-tone language (in the linguistic sense), using only two contrasting registers. Attempts to establish the upper two notes as variant realisations of High speech tones, while the lower two represent Low tones, prove fallacious. As I have described in some detail in an earlier papers, it finally became evident that only the highest note, doh', represented High speech tones. Low speech-tones take low Dob when final, but whether they take te or sob when non-final depends upon the initial consonant of the syllable. Unvoiced consonants require te for the syllable, while most voiced consonants demand sob. The process is operated quite mechanically by the Zulu reciter. There is, in fact, in the spoken language - as also in German and Chinese - an auto- matic voiced consonant/pitch-lowering correlation, as was first noted by D. M. Beach in 19247. This phonetic feature seems to be exploited and exaggerated in izibongo recita- tion. But this, no doubt, has a natural foundation in the fact that consonantal pitch- lowering has a more pronounced effect, in Zulu, when one talks at the top ot one's voice. From the recordings it seems that recitation takes place within a pitch range at least an octave higher than that of normal speech - judging by pitches used by the reciter when announcing the title of each izibongo. 

    The validity of Vilakazi's claim that speech-tone contrasts become "more apparent" in recitation is borne out if we compare recited lines with normally spoken ones, as in Fig. 1. The upper transcription in each case shows recited pitch levels while the lower shows those of a normally spoken version of the same line. The multiplicity of pitches in the spoken versions results from the interaction of speech-tones, lowering consonants (underlined), and, thirdly, overall "sentence intonation" which, in most types of utter- ance in Zulu, confers progressive dropping of pitch, or "downdrift." 

    In recitation, this normal intonation feature is entirely absent until the last two syllables of a stanza where, as the pitch drops all at once, a wide interval is traversed which provides an effective concluding formula. Avoidance of the normal downdritt intonation of speech, and the maintaining of fixed levels ot pitch like musical notes instead, is no doubt what Vilakazi had in mind when he referred to tuning the voice to "some melody" when reciting. He was himself a leading Zulu poet. 


    Fig. 1 Extract from IZibongo zikaShaka 8

    U-Shaka ngiyesab' ukuthi unguShaka
    U-Shaka kwakuyinkosi ya.semashobe-ni.

    Upper transcription:  Recited pitch levels (Mr. John Mgadi);
    Lower transcription: Spoken pitch levels (Mr. S. Ngcobo).

    Translation: "Shaka - I am afraid for thou art Shaka!
    Shaka - There was a king amongst the cattle tails!"
    (i.e., A master of the cattle raid he was!)

    The question remains, however, whether or not Izibongo recitation should be regarded as a species of song. The sequence of pitches is certainly not a free, musically determined melody. Use of one or other of the four notes is conditioned directly by an interaction of speech-tones, consonants, and stanza finality. Linguistic determinism here appears to be absolute, and this state of affairs stands in distinct contrast to what happens in items which are clearly acceptable to true song. In traditional Zulu songs, speech-tones and consonants certainly have an influence on the melodic rise and fall, but musical requirements are also in evidence and there is give and take between the two. As Hornboste I stated of African Negro song, generally:

    "The pitches of the speaking voice, indeed, appear to determine the melodic nucleus; but they have no influence upon its inborn creative forces; these forces, and not any qualities of speech, direct the further course of the melodic development"9.

    In the old dance-song of the Buthelezi clan shown in Fig. 2, only four notes are used - or three and their octaves. But these bear no relationship to those used in izibongo and the way in which High and Low speech-tones are set to the notes is quite different. Hign speech-tones are not realised always on the highest note. In the first two words of the initial phrase, High and Low speech-tones do consistently take dob' and sob, respectively. But in the next word, High tones take sob, and Low tones take ray and, finally, Doh. In the final word of the men's part, speech-tones are melodically over- ruled: the sequence should properly be High-Low-High.


    Fig. 2 Buthelezi (Zulu) dance-song.10
    Translation: "They set him up for one month: then they deposed him.
                       He is getting old now! Father is getting old!"

    It seems to be permissible in this and other true songs, for High syllables at various points in the line to be realised on almost any note within the particular "scale" in use, provided that one or more lower notes remain available for the setting of intervening Low syllables. Occasionally, especially at the end of a line, speech-tone requirements may be entirely over-ruled. The descending melodic line which is characteristic of all such Zulu songs gives a suggestion of affinity with the overall downdrift intonation of normal speech, while the iZibongo convention of consistently maintaining the pitch height of High syllables stands in distinct contrast both to song and to normal speech. The use of exaggerated concluding formulae is also peculiar to Izibongo.

    Regarding metre, fundamental distinctions could be cited between practices in song - where length is often distorted mercilessly for metrical ends' - and in Izibongo, where such things as regular "feet" are not to be found, but rather the natural ryhthms of speech.

    Izibongo and song differ further in rate of utterance. An appreciably greater number of words per minute are uttered in recitation than in any true Zulu song. Words, chosen for their imagery, sound and aptness, are the very core of iZibongo. Their pitch setting could be said to be somewhat mechanical, despite the fact that a series of notes is used which resembles a rudimentary musical scale. In song, on the other hand, words often convey little actual meaning. Lyrics generally consist of a few short phrases which are constantly repeated, with occasional interpolations. Musical expression is paramount.

    From this it would seem that Izibong do not fit, conveniently into the category of Zulu song. From the linguistic point of view they constitute a form of speech utterance with its own special form of overall intonation - possibly comparable with forms of "monotonic chant" in other cultures, such as mentioned by George List in a recent article12. From a musical point of view, Izibongo are excessively word-bound, allowing no freedom to Hornbostel's "inborn creative forces" of the melodic nucleus.

    In contrast to this borderline category of musically stylised speech we find the clear prose folk-tale within whicn short crystallised items of true song occur - though tne teller may at times slip almost imperceptibly from tne one medium into the other and back again. In Africa, as elsewhere in the world, the song within the folk-tale often has magical power. In a Xhosa tale from the Cape, the river monster, Sinyobolokondwana, steals the clothes of the twin sisters, Wele and Welekazi, from the river bank while they bathe. One of the sisters manages to get her clothes back from the monster by singing the required song:
    . Fig. 3 Xhosa folk-tale song'3
    Translation: " Sinyobolokondwana!
                      Give back my clothes!
                     Bhakubha is a long way off;
                   Mother will give me a beating."

    What became of the other sister, who refused to sing properly, is another story. Two transcriptions of this little song have been shown in Fig. 3 - first of an initial recording without any rhytnmical accompaniment, and secondly of anotner recording in which tne singer accompanied herself with regular hand-clapping.

    Singing in Negro Africa very frequently takes place, as we know, against some rhythmical accompaniment - whether this be provided by instruments, dance-steps, hand-clapping, or merely the repetitive movements of some daily task. In such rhythmi- cally accompanied song it has been observed that it seems to be a widespread African habit for word-stresses to fall not on, but between the physical beats.

    A perfectly natural physiological foundation for this suggests itself in the case of work-songs in which heavy muscular effort is called for, or in strenuous acrobatic dancing. It is, of course, an instinctive human reflex to tense the diaphragm and hold the breath, by closing the glottis, at the actual moment of maximum exertion - in tact, even babies do so during defecation. At the actual moment ot this instinctive breath-holding during pushing, lifting, leaping and the like, the emission ot vocal sound of any kind is, of course, impossible. But immediately before or after the moment of exertion - or both before and after it: "buk - - - aaab" - sound of some sort is not only possible, but very probable. A Zulu work-song with the unfortunately all too topical text, "They arrest us!", which is repeated ad infinitum, demonstrates this point clearly. A transcription of the first few lines of this song appears in Fig. 4. The beat, heard as a heavy physical thud whenever it is given expression, always just immediately precedes the beginning of the phrase, during vocal silence.

    Ba-ya-a-si-bo -- pha-, Percussion (thud of shovels) Ba - ya-si-bo - pha - -- etc
     Fig. 4 Zulu work-song14

    Among the Zulu and Xhosa peoples of the extreme south-east, instrumental ensembles are not used at all as a basis for dancing. Dancers sing their own dance music and, particularly with Xhosa dance-songs, there is what seems to be a subtly calculated off- beat relationship between word syllables and the regular dance-step and hand-clap rhythm. This may be seen in Fig. 5, as also in the second version or the song referred to earlier in Fig. 3.

    Fig. 5 shows what my informant called a "sour grapes" dance song - which she had heard during wedding celebrations, and which she thought must have been composed by an old maid.

    Fig. 5 Xhosa dance-song15
    Translation: "How fortunate I am to be unmarried -
                      I can still follow my own inclinations!"


    Here it will be seen that word syllables seldom exactly coincide with a hand-clap, and often fall somewhere between the beats. One gains the impression of a rather loose relationship between words and clapping. This "near miss" relationship is not hap- hazard, however, but seems to be repeated with exactitude with each repetition of the song. My own theory, put forward in an earlier paper,16 is that in Xhosa singing, instead of the best being made to coincide with the release of a consonant - into a vowel, so that the onset of the vowel is on the beat, as is our own practice - it coincides with the initial closing or thrusting movement of the consonant (when this type of consonant occurs) so that the commencement of the vowel invariably occurs later, a little after the beat. This effect appears to be further exploited and exaggerated for stylistic purposes, and closure of the glottis - necessary in strenuous exertion - could, of course, also take place on the beat, during the consonantal closure, if required.

    In passing, it may be ot interest to observe that, in America today, one of the most highly paid singers of "pop" and cabaret songs - with their currently favoured gimmicks of off-beating and deliberately loose word-phrasing-is Miss Miriam Makeba17, a South African of Xhosa extraction, who played the leading role in the original production of the musical, King Kong. This feature of non-coincidence between words and rhythm is, of course, not confined to the Xhosa. Richard Waterman coined the expression "off-beat phrasing of melodic accents in relation to percussion metre"s8 to describe what he found to be a common characteristic in West African music, thousands of miles north of the Xhosa. Apart from this point of similarity, however, there seems to be very little in common between the musical practices of tne West Coast and those of tne extreme soutn-east, where there are no drums or spectacular percussion ensembles.

    Since 1947, an invaluable rallying point for African musical studies has been tne African Music Society and, later, the International Library of African Music, which together have their headquarters near Johannesburg, under the directorship of Mr. Hugh Tracey. The Society issues a journal entitled African Music, and Mr. Tracey has conducted recording expeditions throughout a large part of Africa south of the Sahara. Long-playing discs of the field recordings are available from the International Library.

    Founders of the African Music Society were a handful of white people in Africa who had grown to love indigenous African music and were concerned by the rate at which, in many parts of the country, this was being lost or diluted in the context of rapid social change and under the influence of imported Western styles. Rescue action in the form of a large-scale recording drive was envisaged so that these treasures might be pre- served. Such recordings, it was felt, should be given the chance to compete with foreign music in regional radio programmes and in the record shops. Should the present genera- tion of new African townsmen fail to be impressed, a body of authentic recorded material might still serve to inspire later generations who turn in search of their cultural heritage.

    A "preservationist" attitude towards tradition is by no means widely held by those Africans who have deserted tribalism for a way of life they feel is more suited to the 20th century and who feel that music from their past is out of place. The raison d'etre of many of their traditional musical practices, interwoven as they are with social custom, is no longer provided in town life, or now institutions may pay the piper and hence call a new tune. Under the circumstances, however, they deserve hardly more personal blame than the Western man-in-the-street who relishes only "rock-'n-roll" and the "twist."

    African musicians and scholars there certainly are, however, who do value their indigenous music. The eminent Ghanaian sociologist and ethnomusicologist, Professor J. B. Nketia writes:

    "In contemporary Ghana, old and new forms of folk music exist side by side... For some time there has been a danger of... the older type of folk music being abandoned by literate and urbanised Ghanaians as Ghana gets more and more industrialised. Nationalism, however, is fostering a new pride in our tolk music, and efforts are now being made to preserve or encourage the practice of the best in the older type of folk music throughout the country"x9. 

    NOTES: 
    (1) For examples of texts with English translation, see E. W. Grant: "The Izibongo of he Zulu Chiefs", Bantu Studies, III, 1928, pp. 203-244. 
    (2) Professor of East African Languages, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
    (3) H. F. R. Morris: The Heroic Recitations of the Banyankore, University of London Ph. D. thesis, 1957 (unpublished).
    (4) James Stuart reciting: IZibongo !ikaSenZangakhona, Zonophone 4195; IZibongo ZikaSolomoni ka- Dini.ulu, Zonophone 4178, and IZibongo ZikaShaka, Zonophone 4175. (These, among other praises and folk-tales spoken by Stuart, were recorded in 1927) and John Mgadi reciting the I:ibongo of six of the Zulu kings, recorded on Gallotone GE 1001; GE 967, and GE 998.
    (5) B. W. Vilakazi: "The Conception and Development of Poetry in Zulu", Bantu Studies, XII, 1938, p. 116. (6) D. Rycroft: "Melodic features in Zulu Eulogistic recitation", African Language Studies, 1, 1960, pp. 60-78. (London: Luzac & Co.).
    (7) D. M. Beach: "The Science of Tonetics and its application to Bantu languages", Bantu Studies, II, 1923-6, p. 75.
    (8) Diagram reproduced from D. Rycroft: op. cit., p. 67. Recording: Gallotone GE 967.
    (9) E. M. von Hornbostel: "African Negro Music", Africa, I, Jan. 1928, p. 31.
    (10) Recorded by Hugh Tracey, 1955. Issued on LP disc., "The Sound of Africa" Seies, AMA TR-12 (A, 1). Transcription reproduced from D. Rycroft: op. cit. 2, p. 26.
    (11) See: D. Rycroft, "African Music in Johannesburg: African and non-African features", Journal of the International Folk Music Council, XI, 1959, p. 26.
    (12) George List: "The Boundaries of Speech and Song", Ethnomusicology, VII, 1, January 1963, pp. 3-6. (13) Singer: Mrs. L. Nongobo Whyman, 1955. Recording: D. Rycroft.
    (14) Singer: Mr. R. Kunene, 1959. Recording: D. Rycroft.
    (15) Singer: Mrs. L. N. Whyman, 1956. Recording: D. Rycroft.
    (16) D. Rycroft: "Stylistic Evidence in Nguni Song", paper at Symposium: Music and History in Africa and Asia, Royal Anthropological Institute, London, 1962.
    (17) See, inter a/ia, LP recording "Miriam Makeba Sings", London Records, HA 2332.
    (18) Richard Waterman: "African Influence on the Music of the Americas", in Acculturation in the Americas, ed. Sol. Tax, University of Chicago Press, 1952, p. 213.
    (19) J. H. Nketia: "Changing Traditions in the Folk Music of Ghana", Journal of the Internat. Folk Music Council, XI, 1959, p. 34. * Khulwane means "big" and may be omitted. N.B.--The notation shows the nearest notes in the diatonic scale.
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    Sunday, July 10, 2011

    0

    Xhosa Poetry and The Usage of The Word Tribe

  • Sunday, July 10, 2011
  • Samuel Albert
  • In the following correspondences are some insights into the nature of Xhosa tribal poetry. Xhosa as a nguni language is in many respects similar to the Ngoni language. As noted in a previous post use of words such as licansi, lizulu show resemblance of the ngoni language in usage of so many words as isiXhosa. While isiZulu has dropped li or ili the ngoni language spoken in Ntcheu and Mzimba in Malawi and Chipata in Zambia seem to have maintained them just as isiXhosa. The post below focuses on Xhosa tribal poetry which is also similar in many respects with ngoni praise poetry or tribal poetry. 

    The discussions also focuses on the perceived patronising attitude of the author of an article called Imbongi Nezibongo:The Xhosa Tribal Poetry. To refer to the Xhosa as a tribe is an insult as they are more numerous than most European peoples. I have recently also had problems with the issue of calling the Ngoni as a tribe when the reality is the Ngoni were a nation and controlled a significant portion of present day Malawi. Our paramount chief ought to be called a King and not chief a title the colonialists gave him.

    To the Editor:
    Jeff Opland's comments on Xhosa poetry ("Imbongi Nezibongo: The Xhosa Tribal Poet and the Contemporary Poetic Tradition," PMLA, 90, 1975, 185-208) are particularly interesting to the Africanist, but are additionallyan effective reminder to all critics that poetry has its roots in oral tradition and performance. Given the scholarly quality of much of his analysis, I was distressed by his tone and by what he left unsaid. At best, his attitude toward the Xhosa is patronizing, but considering the political realities of South Africa, there are more troubling implications in the manner he treats his material.
     
    Throughout the article, Opland refers to the "Xhosa tribal poet." When anthropologists define "tribe," "tribal," and "tribesman" clearly, these terms may have value. However, anthropologists are not even in agreement about their meaning, and when amateurs use them loosely, they often reinforce Western stereotypes of non-Western societies. As the title of Moravia's recent book reminds us, one of the most common questions  non-Africans ask Africans is "What tribe do you belong to?" The average Westerner sees Africans only as tribesmen (primitive) or de-tribalized (Western) individuals. The point is: both before European contact and today an African might well be a member of a nation or a state rather than a "tribe" in any sense of that word.
     
    Anthropologically, we might speak of the 3.5 million Xhosa as a nation comprised of several "tribes," but the
    complexities of racial stratification in South Africa today make such a distinction useful and important only to the white South African government which continues to impose "tribal" identity on the South African people to consolidate apartheid rule. The black man who would think of himself as South African, or simply African, is reminded of his assigned "tribal" identity by the "pass card" the law requires him to carry. Even if we could accept Opland's use of "tribe," to speak of a "Xhosa tribal" anything would be redundant. Further, nothing in his performer-oriented typology is specific to Xhosa. The Xhosa and the Zulu, both Nguni people sharing a mutually intelligible language, share izibongo (praise poetry). More important, Africans do not speak of "tribes," a term derived from European ways of examining societies. Because Westerners have used the term loosely to categorize Africans, and in a calculating manner to control them, it has become pejorative.
     
    Were it simply a question of usage, Opland's article would not warrant a sharp critical response. However, the tenor is what we might have expected from a nineteenth-century ethnographer discussing "his" people. Chadwick, whom he quotes, could still talk in the 1930's from an ethnocentric bias about "higher cultures" and "great cultures." Leach, Levi-Strauss, and other contemporary anthropologists have shown how such an attitude is untenable; yet throughout this article we hear reminders that Opland has gone down into the Bantustans (reservations-in a sense, the South African equivalent of our cotton fields) and captured with his
    tape recorder the "spontaneous poetry" of a simple folk. His academic colleagues are always referred to by their last names, but Opland patronizingly refers to a young informant as "little Ziyanda" (p. 191), more tellingly to an older man, Wilson Mkhaliphi, as "an illiterate pagan," and then most amazingly refers to him, not simply by his first name, but as "Old Wilson" (p. 191). If Opland were interviewing a contemporary Western poet such as Pablo Neruda, would he describe him as "a proud man who answered my questions in English patiently, carefully, intelligently, and confidently" (p. 199)? We are given an even less liberal view of the African in the stereotypic description of Nelson Mabunu as "a mild, soft-spoken man who wears glasses and seems to be developing a paunch" (p. 196). We would never accept this Time magazine approach to an article on "Donne and Ecclesiastes"; why must we expect anything less in an article on oral literature?
     
    Finally, Opland acknowledges the very important protest element in the poetry which is now being written, but he does little more. His silence is possibly the result of limitations imposed on him as a scholar working in a pigmentocracy controlled by strict censorship laws. By law, white and black cannot meet on equal terms, so it is startling and speaks well for his ability in the field that his informants even gave him protest lyrics. After all, the consequences for "stirring up trouble" are severe. Over three hundred blacks are under a ban forbidding the printing or performance of their work. Perhaps Opland is trying to protect his informants and not his own position, but whatever his reasons, specific commentary on the social factors that have helped to influence contemporary izibongo are as conspicuously absent as would be lines blacked out by a South African censor.
     
    Regardless of what the artist or critic feels should be the relationship between art and politics, the pass laws, the Bantustans, and the censor's ink impose a relationship in the South African context. As the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe has repeatedly pointed out, it is not a question of commitment, but of commitment to what. It is unfortunate that Opland's commitment to the peoples of South Africa appears limited only to a naively romantic view of the "tribal poet" as an endangered species, that it does not extend to a holistic view of the essential problems of a racially stratified society-problems that have helped to shape the poetry no less than they have impinged upon the lives of the people. Mabunu's eloquent izibongo puts questions before Opland that we never see answered:
    What do you want me to say, fair-skinned one ...
    Why do you want this information,
    Information about the people?
    When did you begin, men,
    To concern yourselves
    About the things of the people?
    Because the day that the missionaries arrived
    They carried a Bible in front,
    But they had a breechloaders lung behind.( p. 199)
     
    There is more abuse than praise in this poem, and until Opland takes full cognizance of this fact he will have
    done little to show the West the significance of izibongo in "man's intellectual history."
     
    RICHARD PRIEBE
    Virginia Commonwealth University
     
    Mr. Opland replies.
    Objections to my article are raised under two headings: "the tone and what was left unsaid." Under "tone" Richard Priebe finds offensive my use of the term "tribe" as well as my "patronizing" style. "Tribe" is a term sanctioned by scholarly usage, employed by the ethnographers I have consulted, and, in my experience, free of any derogatory connotations. It is certainly meaningful to the people themselves: for example, considerable
    animosity still exists today among certain circles in the Ciskei between the Mfengus and the Rharhabes. Following established practice, I have in my article called such units "tribes" (other Xhosa speaking tribes are mentioned in n. 6); even if no self respecting anthropologist would use the word today, scholars in other disciplines might still find it useful and generally meaningful. Or are we all now to talk of the twelve clans or family bands of Israel?

    In presenting my informants to my readers I consciously chose to adopt an anecdotal style designed to suggest something of the human relationship that exists between folklorist and performer. If my attitude to my
    informants were patronizing, they would hardly tolerate my frequent visits or entertain my questions with patience. No description of any informant could be a stereotype, since each is an individual: my description of Nelson Mabunu, for example, as "a mild, softspoken man who wears glasses and seems to be developing a paunch" is accurate, and was intended to convey the contrast with the "agile and athletic" performer he suddenly and dramatically became during that interview (p. 199).
     
    Priebe asserts that "the essential problems of a racially stratified society" have "influenced" and "helped to shape" the poetry I describe. This is an interesting hypothesis, one that I would wish Priebe or any other qualified person to develop in a scholarly article: unfortunately, I am not equipped to do it. My interest is in the comparative study of oral literatures, as I thought I made clear in my article. There is much more that can and must be said about the material I present, but I did not feel that this general article was the place for exploring in detail all these interesting and important bypaths. As I said, "In this article many questions have been left unanswered, and many topics have perhaps been treated too summarily. The intention, however, was merely to show the interaction of the different kinds of poets in the Xhosa community, their influence on and relation to one another" (p. 205).

    I confess to being somewhat taken aback by the readiness of American Africanists to criticize adversely anything South African that is not black or banned; their zeal often outpaces their discretion. To cling to the belief that all white South Africans support their government (or that all black South Africans oppose it) is indeed naively romantic, however fashionable or necessary it may be for one's existence as a teacher of African Studies in an American university. I wish to extend a public invitation to Priebe to travel to South Africa and join me in my field work. Perhaps then his view of my article would be more balanced, and perhaps then his scholarly criticism of the material I present would be better informed.
     
    JEFF OPLAND
    Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies
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