PhD Theses

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Browsing PhD Theses by Subject "African literature"

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    The nanga epos of the bahaya
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 1986) Mulokozi, Mugyabuso mlinzi
    This thesis sets out to define the nanga epos of the bahaya of Tanzania as a specific example of the African oral epic.It starts from the premise that the nanga epos is an oral performance which exists only as a momentary esthetic event, not as a fixed, permanent text. As such, its occurrence, its content, and indeed, its final is ultimately determined by the social-historical and performance context. The interaction between this con-text and the content and formal aspects of the verbalization of the epos gives us three sets of epos characteristics namely; the contextual characteristics, the content characteristics, and the formal characteristics. The contextual characteristics operate at two levels; the macro-contextual level and the micro-contextual level. The macro-context is the social-historical situation pertaining to the origination and subsequent performances of a given epos. For feature acknowledges the primary role of non-literary factors in defining the nanga epos. For instance the very existence of the nanga epos tradition cannot be divorced from the rise of the Bahinda/Ba-bito aristocracy in Buhaya-Karagwe; the tradition was sustained through the warring activities and patronage of that aristocracy. The decline of the traditional social set-up. These historical realities also dictated its functions in traditional Buhaya societies. The micro-context pertains to the immediate performance situation and needs. The central features of this level are the interaction between the bard, the audience, and the social setting on the one hand, and between the text and the musical setting on the other, it is from this interaction that the nanga epos derives much of its poetic quality and impact. The content of specific epos is likewise dictated and demarcated by the macro-contextual and the performance factors. The subject matter of most nanga derive from the social-historical struggle and processes dating from the time of the Bachwezi (13-14th centuary) to the present. The process of political centralization and its antithesis; the clan and plebeian resistance, that accompanied the changes in the modes of production and the corresponding economic relations, is featured directly or indirectly in the majority of the epos.The subsequent degeneration of the ruling classes, culminating in the rise of new ruling lineges in Kyamutwala and Kiziba in the nineteenth century, is also featured in the nineteenth century epos. These social-political themes are ingeniously blended with sub-themes of a more personal nature, revolving around such existential problems as love, jealousy, the meaning of life, and problem of death and immortality. The bardic per-spectives on these issues are informed by a traditional materialistic world view.The nanga epos are thus more than fiction, they are more that myth and legend, the nanga epos are also history. They contain valuable historical data and they symbolically depict historical process.The nanga conceptualization of the hero and heroic is likewise determined by the social- historical but human, mighty but vulnerable. He lacks divine pretensions, and is not guided by the hand of destiny He can therefore only triumph by employing the tried traditional weapons, namely; his own physical and mental might, occult science and the support of his community. The formal characteristics are determined by the interaction between context and verbalization. The nanga epos derives its structure from the traditional narrative pattern it thus has a unified plot, whose lowest narrative unit is the topes, and whose highest unit is the story, within this narrative framework the utterances are verbalized through a generative process that has two interacting and inter- related levels- the preverbal and the verbal. The pre- verbal level consists of a frame of reference called a Gestalt which branches into numerous core-ideas (formulas) and core-vignettes (topes). These are in turn realized during performance as all forms and allotropes. This process is facilitated and influenced by the musical setting The musical setting has three elements; the instrumental music produced by the nanga zither, the vocal music produced by the bards voice and occasionally the audience and the percussion sounds (e.g. clapping) produced by the bard and/or the audience. These musical elements serve as poetic devices narrative markers, or content reinforcements. The musical setting interacts that constitutes the poetic experience of nanga performance. The other important poetic element of the nanga epos is the imagery is highly developed; it derives from the history environment beliefs and prejudices of the Bahaya as well as the whole gamut of their oral arts and traditions. Two types of imagery-metaphor and allusion, demonstrates how this features operates in the poetry. One obvious characteristic of the metaphors is their association of pastoral images, especially cattle and the wildlife, with heroism, manhood and the aristocracy and their association of aquatic and agricultural images with womanhood. The complex structure of the metaphors, with many layers of meaning, both denotative and connotative, testify to the artistic accomplishment of the nanga bards within their tradition Finally all these features, plus the presence of other literary and non-literary genres in each epos go to characterize the nanga epos as a multi generic, multi functional genre that is truly the encyclopedic art form of the Bahaya