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In discussing oral literature, we are talking of a large corpus of material which can have its total integrity impact and realization only within the scope of performance, transmission and occasion.
The performer of oral literature gives form of material, formulates and realizes it within regulated and specified occasions.
The occasions may be a wedding ceremony, a funeral etc.
Oral literature covers three broad types of literature: drama, prose narrative and poetry. Drama deals with what goes on in festivals and ceremonies. Prose deals with folk tales and epics while poetry deals with songs and poems. How have Kenyan authors in co operated the oral literature to writing? The Kenyan writers? debt to the oral tradition is in their creation of a new English Style that follows and derives from their own African language idiom, rhythm and tenor. Ngugi wa Thiongo's for example in all his works exhibits a remarkable grasp of proverb like Chinua Achebe says that is the palm oil with which words are eaten. The proverbs are intricately woven into the fabric of Ngugi's style and constitute a significant feature of his style. In I will marry when I want; he uses the proverb, „the antelope hates less the one who sees it than the one who shouts its presence?. Ngugi also employs songs in the play. In his novels, in addition to proverbs, he employs folk tales and myths?. The River Between has a myth about the origin of the Agikuyu Community. In Petals of Blood, there is the folk tale of the descendant of the Agikuyu Ndemi who was afarmer.
The novel or short story comes to us in the form of telling. There is the narrative technique and the writer can have the story told through the mediation of a personified narrator. The language in a novel is like a spoken tale by a personified narrator. This narration has its origin in the narrative which is a genre of oral literature.
Orality and modern written Kenyan literature has a theoretical orientation by the Nigeria Scholar Isidore Okpewho. He argues that the relationship between traditional orature and modernity depends on the amount of Creative Freedom the writer is willing to assume in handling the material from the creative literature of his people. For example Ngugi uses past to discuss the present. The conflict in Kameno and Makuyu was brought about by the foreigners who preached a religion that alienates the people of the two ridges. Ngugi reminds the people of their heroes and the victories the tribe had won in the past through their unity.
In Weep not Child, Ngugi?s character Ngotho has last wish for his son Njoroge to take care of his two wives. This is what culture calls for. Ngugi's main influence from Oral Literature is the narrative structure. The dominant narratives in his works are the stories of Mugo wa Kibiru the Agikuyu seer and the stories of Gikuyu and Mumbi the ancestors of the tribe.
Titany answered the question on November 11, 2021 at 09:27
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- MICERE G. MUGO: Digging Our Grave
My subconscious
Leaks out
A past
I have long buried
Marching under
Drenching rain Draining
heat Heavy escort
Fenced in on every side
By howling, vicious guards At...(Solved)
MICERE G. MUGO: Digging Our Grave
My subconscious
Leaks out
A past
I have long buried
Marching under
Drenching rain Draining
heat Heavy escort
Fenced in on every side
By howling, vicious guards At the
crack of dawn
Miles from home
An unbroken file of men and women, Boys and
girls
Heading north
To Kirinyaga Forest trench White-
washed
In colonial propaganda
Loyalised
Venomed
Against blood-brothers A
raving guard Slashes at
Mumbi
As she halts
To shift her bundle From
shoulder to breast
“ In the name of Ngai I get
you bwana,
Spare my child!” she cries
On the slopes of the sacred mountain „ Ngai
sanctuary –
His children bend Low
Slaving Hungry Weather
beaten Crushed with
blows Digging day-long
A grave
A trap
For brothers In the
forest
A twenty –foot gulf Separates
Blood from blood
Grinning the expose Rows
of spikes That lie waiting
To crucify
Him who dares plan A
reunion
Curfew starts at sunset Away back in
the trench Journeying back in the
dark Cries of hungry children Tear
mother's hearts
While fathers
-castrated- Tamely
listen
And gaze at their toes
Survivors arrive At
midnight
At first cock-crow The pot
leaves the fire At third cock-
crow The daily March Again
begins.....
Under the sweat of Today
labour
We forgive the past
Impossible to forget
Questions
1. Explain the meaning of the title of the poem
2. What is the main theme of this poem?
3. What does the speaker reveal about the guards?
4. explain the meaning of the following lines as used in the poem:
(a) “Bundle” (line 25)
(b)“ a twenty-foot gulf separates blood from blood”(lines 43-45)
(c) “- castrated_” (line58).
Date posted: November 11, 2021. Answers (1)
- Tell me thou proud jigger,
Having stolen your way in
Need you beat your chest
In premature celebration?
Your flying brother
Sang a song of victory...(Solved)
Tell me thou proud jigger,
Having stolen your way in
Need you beat your chest
In premature celebration?
Your flying brother
Sang a song of victory
Before he tasted the toast
And met his singing end.
We thought you had learned
To taste and not devour
Unmindful of other mouths
In the neighborhood of time
Come thou proud jigger
Follow the prick in my hand
And celebrate your death
Beside thy favourite toe
Explanation
Jigger is another word for chigoe, a tropical flea which burrows
into the skin of its host. A toast in British custom is drink to wish someone good health
or success. For example, at a wedding, someone proposes a toast to the bride and
groom whereon all present wills and, raise their glasses, repeat “to the bride and
groom”, and drink.
Toast in another sense is a slice of bread browned on both sides by radiant heat.
Questions
1. Who/What is the second stanza referring to?
2. Who does the „you‟ in the third stanza refer to?
3. What does the persona achieve by talking to the jigger as if it understands him?
4. What is the moral teaching of this story?
5. Give the meaning of the following lines as they have been used in the poem
(a) “In premature celebration?” (line4)
(b) “Before he tasted the toast” (line7)
Date posted: November 11, 2021. Answers (1)
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