Palgrave Handbook of African Oral Traditions and Folklore

Editors:Akintunde Akinyemi is Professor and Chair in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Florida, USA.Toyin Falola is the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities and a Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, USA.Partial Listing of Contributors:Julius Adekunle, Monmouth UniversitySimeon Ibigbolade Aderibigbe, University of Georgia at Athens, USA Chiji Akoma, Villanova University, USA Adetayo Alabi, University of Mississippi, USAJoyce Ashuntantang, University of Hartford, USAKarin Barber, University of Birmingham, UKRagi Bashonga, Human Sciences Research Council, South AfricaRobert Cancel, University of California, San Diego, USARaphael d’Abdon, University of South AfricaErnest N. Emenyonu, University of Michigan–Flint, USA Olawole Famule, University of Wisconsin at Superior, USAArtisia Green, College of William and Mary, USAMarame Gueye, East Carolina University, USALee Haring, Brooklyn College, CUNY, USAKathryn Jones, Swansea University, UKKasongo M. Kapanga, University of Richmond, USARussell H. Kaschula, Rhodes University, South AfricaCécile Leguy, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3, FranceJoseph McLaren, Hofstra University, USAPatricia Beatrice Mireku-Gyimah, University of Mines and Technology, GhanaMustafa Kemal Mirzeler, Western Michigan University, USABesi Brillian Muhonja, James Madison University, USAJuliana Makuchi Nfah-Abbenyi, North Carolina State University, USAJacomien van Niekerk, University of Pretoria, South AfricaFelicia Ohwovoriole, University of Lagos, NigeriaRose Opondo, Moi University, KenyaFélix Ayoh'Omidire, Obafemi Awolowo University, NigeriaGail Presbey, University of Detroit Mercy, USALesibana Rafapa, University of South AfricaRelfiwe M. Ramagoshi, University of Pretoria, South AfricaAngela M. Farr Schiller, Kennesaw State University, USAEnongene Mirabeau Sone, Walter Sisulu University, CameroonMobolanle Sotunsa, Babcock University, NigeriaRémi Armand Tchokothe, University of Bayreuth, GermanyAntoinette Tidjani Alaou, Niamey University, NigerKarim Traoré, University of Georgia, USAHanétha Vété-Congolo, Bowdoin College, USAHein Willemse, University of Pretoria, South AfricaFelicity Wood, University of Fort Hare, South Africa

• Chapter 1. Introduction: Perspectives on African Oral Traditions and Folklore.- Part I. Contexts and Practicalities.- Chapter 2. Creativity and Performance in Oral Poetry.- Chapter 3. Concept and Components of Performance.- Chapter 4. The Role of the Audience in Oral Performance.- Chapter 5. Orality, History, and Historical Reconstruction.- Chapter 6. Insights from Festivals and Carnivals.- Chapter 7. Fieldwork and Data Collection.- Chapter 8. Documenting Oral Genres.- Chapter 9. Retrospect and Prospects of Oral Tradition and Folklore.- Part II. Themes, Tropes and Types. Chapter 10. Epic Tradition.- Chapter 11. Divination and Divinatory Systems.- Chapter 12. Myth and Mythology.- Chapter 13. The Dirge.- Chapter 14. Dreams within the Context of the Basotho Culture.- Chapter 15. Drum Language and Literature.- Chapter 16. Oratory and Rhetoric: Praise Poetry.- Chapter 17. Proverbs, Naming, and other Forms of Veiled Speech.- Chapter 18. Oral Poetry: Monyoncho’s Orature and AbaGusii Culture of Non-violence.- Chapter 19. Ifá: A Womanist Deconstruction of Gender Politics.- Chapter 20. A Repertoire of Bukusu Nonverbal Communicative System: Some Gender Differences, etc.