Izibongo

Izibongo is a genre of oral literature among various Bantu peoples of Southern Africa, including the Zulu^[1] and the Xhosa.^[2] While it is often considered to be poetry of praise, Jeff Opland and others consider the term "praise" (for "bonga") to be too limiting, since it can contain criticism also.^[3]

Subject matter

Noleen Turner distinguished four different categories: the praise of ordinary people (izibongo zabantu kumbe izihasho), of inanimate things (izibongo zezinto ezingaphili); of kings, and of great people (nezibongo zamakhosi/izibongo zabantu abakhulu abagqamile); and of clans (izithakazelo kanye nezibongo).^[1] Opland recognized three topics: people, animals, and objects, and noted that izibongo "is a poetry rooted, in subject and imagery, in the concrete", and that it does not treat landscape or emotion "in the manner of romantic or lyric poetry".^[3]

Somadoda Fikeni points out that regarding izibongo as pertaining only to famous people (a Eurocentric paradigm) discredits common people, women, young people—Fineki argues that izibongo is a central element in the life of the people, and that while not everyone can have an "imbongi-public poet", everyone practices izibongo one way or another, since "izibongo form a collective memory, conscience and soul of an African society, and they are spiritually-centered oral narratives which are repositories of Indigenous wisdom". Izibongo, according to Fikeni, express both a oneness with the universe and a collective memory, and an individuality rooted in history.^[2] Jeff Opland also stated that earlier studies (into the 1970s) of Bantu poetry tended to focus on "the poetry of chiefs and prominent people", though he recognized a number of insightful studies on poetry by women, for instance, starting in the 1970s.^[3]

See also

• Isiduko, Xhosa clan names
• Oríkì, a similar concept amongst the Yoruba of West Africa

References

1. Turner, Noleen (1994). "A brief overview of Zulu oral traditions" (PDF). Alternation. 1 (1): 58–67. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
2. Fikeni, Somadoda (2006). "The Nature and Function of Izibong-Panegyric Legends: The Case of the Xhosa People of South Africa". In Kunnie, Julian; Goduka, Nomalungelo Ivy (eds.). Indigenous Peoples' Wisdom and Power: Affirming Our Knowledge Through Narratives. Ashgate. pp. 225–45. ISBN 9780754615972.
3. Opland, Jeff (1983). Xhosa Oral Poetry: Aspects of a Black South African Tradition. Cambridge Studies in Oral and Literate Culture. Cambridge UP. ISBN 9780521241137.