African Oral Literature

Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah was formerly Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive, Professor of English, Comparative Oral Poetics and Performance, University of Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria. He’s the author of African Discourse in Islam, Oral Traditions, and Performance (Routeldge, 2010); Yoruba Oral Tradition in Islamic Nigeria (Routledge, 2020), among others.

"An essential reading on Africa's rich oral traditions. Na'Allah deserves commendation for producing this accessible yet comprehensive volume on the histories, forms, and politics of oral literature in Africa, replete with the intricacies of the entanglement of old media and the world of social media."Cajetan Iheka, Professor of English, Yale University, author of Naturalizing Africa (Cambridge UP, 2018), and African Ecomedia (Duke UP, 2021), Director, Whitney Humanities Center, Chair, Council on African Studies, Head, Yale Africa Initiative and Editor-in-Chief of African Studies Review."Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah’s African Oral Literature, An Introduction is truly an excellent book; comprehensive in its coverage of different genres of African verbal arts; uses wide-ranging and up-to-date oral data; a good balance between classical and contemporary oral text; coherent across units and focused in each chapter. The careful selection and translation of oral literary data in the book and the meticulous explanation of the material are models of scholarship. The book lives up to the high standards set by Ruth Finnegan in African Oral Literature and Isidore Okpewho in African Oral Literature: Background, Character, and Continuity, which have rarely been matched by any other."Akintunde Akinyemi, Professor of Yoruba Language and Literature, University of Florida, author, Orature and Yoruba Riddles (Palgave Macmillan, 2015), and Sango in Africa and the African Diaspora (Indiana UP, 2009), President, International Society for the Oral Literatures of Africa (ISOLA) and Coeditor of Yoruba Studies Review. "Comprehensive, scholarly, and yet highly accessible to the general reader. This is a compendium of knowledge of oral literature that encompasses the main aspects, forms, and features of this ever-present tradition of literature. The author emphasizes the performative aspects of oral literature that help to define its vivacious nature. Major aspects here have not only “Questions and Comments” but also “Further Reading.” The addition of social media and AI has brought the discussion to a cutting-edge level. This is a book that the oral literature expert, scholar, student, and general reader will read with interest and gusto. AbdulRasheed Na’Allah has put African oral literature into the global spectrum."Tanure Ojaide, scholar and poet, the Frank Porter Graham Professor of Africana Studies, The University of North Carolina, Charlotte, author, Indigeneity, Globalization, and African Literature (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), and Poetry, Performance, and Art (Carolina Academic Press, 2003).

• Preface 1. Introduction 2. Oral Narratives 3. Oral Poetry 4. Oral Dramatic Performance 5. Compositional Narrative Techniques 6. Oral Apprenticeships 7. Orality and Informal Education 8. Narrative Didacticism 9. Poetry of Engagement 10. African Drama of Total Theatre 11. Oral Literary Characters 12. African Cosmology and Oral Traditions 13. Oral Traditions and Technology 14. African Oral Literature and the Social Media 15. African Oral Literature and Historical Essence 16. African Oral Literature in the Twenty First Century: Platform and Performativity 17. Oral Texts, Writing and Textualities 18. Conclusion: Life and Performance: Life is a performance, every space a performance space!