African Discourse in Islam, Oral Traditions, and Performance [Hardcover]

Through an engaged analysis of writers such as Wole Soyinka, Ola Rotimi, Niyi Osundare, and Tanure Ojaide and of African traditional oral poets like Omoekee Amao Ilorin and Mamman Shata Katsina, Abdul-Rasheed Na'Allah develops an African indigenous discourse paradigm for interpreting and understanding literary and cultural materials. Na'Allah argues for the need for cultural diversity in critical theorizing in the twenty-first century. He highlights the critical issues facing scholars and students involved in criticism and translation of marginalized texts. By returning the African knowledge system back to its roots and placing it side by side with Western paradigms, Na'Allah has produced a text that will be required reading for scholars and students of African culture and literature. It is an important contribution to scholarship in the domain of mobility of African oral tradition, and on African literary, cultural and performance discourse.

1. ?l?l?r?: A Yor?b? Indigenous Discourse on Criticism and Interpretation  2. ?l?l?r?and Translation  3. Some Thoughts on Traditional Hausa Aesthetics and Arabic Influence on Yor?b? and Hausa Written Traditions in Nigeria  4. Horses of Memoryand The Word is an Egg: Osundares Poetic Voices  5. Cultural Poetics, African Diaspora, and the Global World: Tanure Ojaides I Want to Dance and Other Poems  6. African Cultural Revival as an Important Message in Death and the Kings Horsemanand The Lion and the Jewel  7. Language and Culture in an African Adaptation of Sophocles'Oedipus Rex  8.Yor?b? Egungun: Some Critical Thoughts  9. Traditional Oral Genre in a Muslim Ilorin: Survival Challenges  10. Mamman Shata Katsina and Omoekee Amao Ilorin: Islam, Performance, and Orality

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