Poetry
Praise-Poems of Tswana Chiefs
Anonymous · 1965
Synopsis
These praise poems celebrate the deeds attributed to the chiefs of four great tribes of Bechuanaland, the Kgafela-Kgatla, the Kwena, the Ngwaketse and the Ngwato, and are recited in the heroic mode. The oldest sing of chiefs of the eighteenth century, war, lion or elephant hunting, cattle; the most recent add new adventures, a stay in Europe or a conflict with the administration. Professional praise-singers, chiefs and ordinary people compose their own praise in them, through allusions and indirection.
Context
The anthropologist Isaac Schapera, born in the Cape Colony and a professor at the London School of Economics, collected almost all of these texts with the help of Tswana schoolteachers and scholars, and publishes them in Setswana with their English translation. His introduction studies the structure, themes and style of the poems, then Tswana history and institutions, and each part opens with the genealogy of the ruling family. In the nineteenth century, every young man composed his own praise at his initiation.
Who it is for
Oral poems in Setswana with an English translation; their historical allusions need the support of the introduction and the genealogies.
Prizes and reception
Veronika Görög, in L'Homme, praised its thoroughly researched introduction, and Anthony Atmore reviewed it in the Journal of African History.
Sources for this page 6
The pages consulted to check this page.