AfricaBib 
bibliographic database
| Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | Commitment and language in Joseph Kumbirai's poetry |
| Author: | Chiwome, E. Mudhliwa |
| Year: | 1991 |
| Periodical: | Research in African Literatures |
| Volume: | 22 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Pages: | 55-66 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Zimbabwe |
| Subjects: | Shona literature poetry |
| About person: | Joseph Camillo Kumbirai (1922-1986) |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/3819606 |
| Abstract: | Joseph Camillo Kumbirai (1922-1986), poet, priest, teacher, and critic, is one of the most prolific Shona poets in Zimbabwe. His poetry spans the period between 1965 and 1983. It dominates the pioneer Shona poetry of the late 1950s and the mid-1960s, and the independence poetry of the early 1980s. Historically, his poetry falls into both the colonial and the independence periods. Kumbirai enters the literary scene as a devout Roman Catholic proselytizer and priest. His themes show a tireless concern to popularize the Catholic doctrine by expressing it in the indigenous conceptual idiom. In maturity Kumbirai relinquishes celibacy and priesthood and celebrates the advent of political independence. The poetry he then composes has a sociopolitical slant. He handles the popular and well-known traditional didactic poetry genre 'nhango' in a creative way. His art gives a new syncretic form to two complementary genres, namely 'nhango', whose main purpose is to instruct, and 'nziyo' (songs and dramatic lyrics), whose main purpose is to teach and to entertain the young. He uses this new literary poetry to induce the Shona society to virtuous action. The poems published in the article, in Shona with English translation, illustrate these developments. Bibliogr., notes. |
