Introduction to African Oral Literature & Performance

This new book puts together in a single cover, two earlier volumes by the authors, now revised to meet the challenges of a twenty-first century scholarship in African performance and cultural studies. Topics covered range from sources of African oral traditions, relevance of cosmology to African oral performance, fieldwork practice and research methodology, archetypes, folktales, myths and legends, performance and stylistic features, to various areas of poetic performances like praise poetry, religious poetry, topical, occupational and heroic poetry, their performances and more. The central theme of the book is performance, and students, scholars and readers are provided with projects and exercises intended to keep them involved in research and performance experience of the oral forms. Teaching and curriculum development suggestions are given to teachers of African oral performances. Important information is provided to guide researchers into a continued exciting experience in the study of and research into African oral traditions. Materials are included from a good number of languages and cultures of Africa including Yoruba, Hausa, Nupe, among others, so that students would be able to explore these important examples as testimony of the richness of the scholarly and cultural resources in African oral traditions.