Orality in Writing: Its Cultural and Political Significance in Wole Soyinka's Ogun Abibiman
In “New Trends In Modern African Poetry,” Tanure Ojaide observes that “poetry in Africa is [. . .] currently enjoying an unprecedented creative outburst and popularity” (4). This popularity, according to him, seems to arise from “some aesthetic strength hitherto unrealized in written African poetry which has successfully adapted oral poetry technique into the written form” (4). Though written in English, the poetry carries the African sensibility, culture, and worldview, as well as the rhythms, structures, and techniques of oral tradition, resulting in what Wole Soyinka calls “double writing,” or interweaving of various ethnic, geographic, personal, and peculiar African oral features into the European-derived written form (“Neo-Tarzanism” 319). Such oral features include ceremonial chants, tonal lyricism, poetry of the primal drum and flute, proverbs, riddles, myths, songs, folktales, the antiphonal call-and-response styles, and the rhythmic, repetitive, digressive, and formulaic modes of language use. This use of African oral tradition is abundantly evident in the works of major African writers. To the Nigerian poet Christopher Okigbo, the artist’s vocation is a priestly office charged with maintaining the culture of his/her society as a whole. Heavensgate, Distances, and Limits, make this claim evident. Like Okigbo, Ghanaian poet Kofi Awoonor is preoccupied with African folk traditions, as well as the damaging effects of the European presence in Africa. As suggested by the title of his collection Rediscovery and Other Poems, the poetry is chiefly concerned with the plight of a contemporary Africa uprooted from its traditional past by contact with an uncomprehending Europe and the poet’s attempts to regain this past. Use of traditional African oral discourse is also discernible in the poetry of Southern Africa, especially poetry against apartheid. David B. Copland’s analysis of Basotho sefela (songs of the inveterate travelers) elucidates the oral content of this poetry, and it shows that sefela springs from traditional praise poems common throughout Southern Africa (qtd. in White 7). Nor is the oral emphasis restricted to Western and Southern Africa. In East Africa, the two major poets, Jared Angira and Okot p’Bitek, use oral textual features to reflect African culture. Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino, for instance, relies heavily on traditional oral literature in its use of Acoli proverbs and songs. The most obvious markers of orality in the text are the acknowledged borrowings, indented quotations, that Lawino uses to illustrate kit Acoli in many respects. That a new literary orientation exists in contemporary African Literature cannot be doubted. Though the long list of African writers using and expanding features of oral discourse is enormous, I focus on Wole Soyinka’s Ogun Abibiman because not much work on orality in Soyinka’s poetry has been done. Moreover, Wole Soyinka has often been
An analysis of the influences of discourse in the anthology: 'Zimbabwean Poetry in English'.
Introduction Zimbabwean Poetry in English, compiled and introduced by Kizito Muchemwa (1978: xii) as poetry that '... shows no definite direction of growth in its early stages ... ,' is a multi-voice anthology of pioneering work reflecting various levels of expertise and, 'literary eclecticism' (Adu- Gyumfi, 2003: 105), within the context of the Horton- Asquith Model. The model is a hybrid of recommendations made by two committees which were set up to plan for the establishment of University Education in Africa. Firstly, there was the Asquith committee of 1925 which favoured a modern University Education in Africa that incorporated African history, value systems and languages. The other committee chaired by James Africanus Beale Horton in 1968 recommended that there be established in Africa, a University Education system based on undiluted Western Education. In this model, there was no place of African languages, history and culture in University Education. As a product of these two models, the Horton--Asquith model is responsible for the relegation of African languages to the periphery in the Education system obtaining in African Universities. The model also sought to spread European languages in Africa and consequently European cultures and value systems. Ngugi (2000), rightly notes that the model still haunts African scholarship and politics to date. Therefore, in Africa, the Horton- Asquith Model created products of 'the English Department whose initial aspirations were triggered by the admiration or disagreement with the models they read' (wa Thiongo, 2000: 5). The multi-voice anthology comprises voices mainly reflecting images of suffering, dejection, pessimism and surrender. As a product of the model, the anthology depicts a typical poetic character blended by a plethora of historical, oral and literary events whose influence is located within the history of Zimbabwe including her experiences as a colony. Sadly, though, the background influencing this pioneering corpus was either over -looked, glossed over, ignored or simply not given proper attention despite its centrality to the development of a Zimbabwean brand of literary poetry in general and a Zimbabwean version of poetry in English in particular. However, apart from Muchemwa's (ibid) introductory remarks, the only other attempt to unmask the background influences of this poetry was done by Flora Wild (1988), who interviewed various poets, of course, not withstanding the typical shortcomings of foreign scholars of African literature. Wild (Ibid), does not clearly explain how information gathered through interviews was used to unveil the nature of the discourse, form, structure, spirit and status of the poetry corpus as a whole. The writer thus argues that this rare poetic discourse, a gigantic feat in its own right, is a clear product of both the negative and positive historical, cultural and econopolitical realities of its time, of course, within the framework of the Horton-Asquith model. Thus, the historical condition of colonization, oppression and suppression of Shona-Ndebele religious values coupled with the then obtaining socio-economic system, it can be further argued, gave the poetry its propensity and impetus which naturally is realised in its form and meaning. Furthermore, this poetry is better understood by appreciating the peasant background of its authors who mainly hail from communal lands. On the same token, knowing the influence of this poetry implies an awareness of its form, structure and thematic concerns. In this article, one notes that the first anthology of Zimbabwean poetry in English was influenced by a three-fold tradition that can be reduced to two, namely, 'African oral traditions' and 'the damaging experience of European presence in Africa' (AduGyamfi, 2003:104). Firstly, the poetry partly stems from the oppressive, repressive, segregatory and consequently dehumanising administrative style of the colonial regimes in Africa in general and Rhodesia in particular. …
The identity and self-perception of artists-managers
Manager’s and artist’s professional identities seem to be opposite, but there are many indications that this understanding is not justified in reality. Despite the contradictions, these two identities can intersect. The paper aims to define the characteristics of the artists-managers’ identity. The object of the study was qualitative research (n = 22) conducted in the form of in-depth interviews with key informants from the international environment. The practical objective was to verify common and contradicted features of the artist’s and the manager’s identities among artists-managers to understand the possibilities of reducing the intra-psychic tensions and ways of fruitful paradoxical thinking among managers and negative consequences for personalities and organizations. The study reveals common characteristics between the artist’s and manager’s identities and describes artists-managers’ identity. Although artists-managers experience diversity between both identities, they do not see them as contrary; they use paradoxical thinking, being experts in using personal seemingly contradictory characteristics to achieve outstanding performance. Acting in paradoxical contexts and focusing on the positive aspects of seemingly contradictory personal qualities, they find nonstandard creative solutions. By trying to understand and implement their self-construction, there is the possibility to reduce the intra-psychic tensions and negative consequences of seemingly opposite identities or goals among individuals in organizations. There is a synergy between the manager’s and artist’s identities. Understanding the nature and attributes of artistic creativity, aesthetic theories and the phenomenon of artist-manager’s identity can be a valuable contribution to the practice of management and organizational life.