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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:War and Remembrance: The Power of Oral Poetry and the Politics of Hananwa Identity
Authors:Joubert, AnnekieISNI
Van Schalkwyk, J.A.ISNI
Year:1999
Periodical:Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:25
Issue:1
Period:March
Pages:29-47
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:Sotho
military operations
1894
praise poetry (form)
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
History and Exploration
Education and Oral Traditions
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/2637585
Abstract:The important role that oral tradition plays in the reconstruction of the historical and cultural existence of nonliterate societies demands an interdisciplinary approach. In this analysis of the praise poem in honour of Ratshatsha, former chief of the Hananwa, disciplinary boundaries are crossed, and the input of the performer, family members and local inhabitants are included in order to arrive at a better understanding of the oral text. Ratshatsha, or Kgalushi, reigned over the Hananwa, a Northern Sotho-speaking people living at Blouberg in the Northern Province of South Africa, from 1879 to 1939. The praise poem, which is presented here in Hananwa, with an English translation, gives a comprehensive account of the 1894 siege of Blouberg by forces of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR). The recital of this praise poem during a contemporary political gathering can be viewed as the Hananwa taking an active role in the dialectics of their own history. Note, ref., sum.
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