Izibongo is a genre of oral literature among various

Bantu peoples The Bantu peoples, or Bantu, are an ethnolinguistic grouping of approximately 400 distinct ethnic groups who speak Bantu languages. They are native to 24 countries spread over a vast area from Central Africa to Southeast Africa and into Souther ...

of Southern Africa, including the Zulu and the

Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...

. While it is often considered to be poetry of praise, Jeff Opland and others consider the term "praise" (for "bonga") to be too limiting, since it can contain criticism also.

Subject matter

Noleen Turner distinguished four different categories: the praise of ordinary people (''izibongo zabantu kumbe izihasho''), of inanimate things (''izibongo zezinto ezingaphili''); of kings, and of great people (''nezibongo zamakhosi/izibongo zabantu abakhulu abagqamile''); and of clans (''izithakazelo kanye nezibongo''). Opland recognized three topics: people, animals, and objects, and noted that ''izibongo'' "is a poetry rooted, in subject and imagery, in the concrete", and that it does not treat landscape or emotion "in the manner of romantic or lyric poetry". Somadoda Fikeni points out that regarding ''izibongo'' as pertaining only to famous people (a Eurocentric paradigm) discredits common people, women, young people—Fineki argues that ''izibongo'' is a central element in the life of the people, and that while not everyone can have an "''imbongi''-public poet", everyone practices ''izibongo'' one way or another, since "''izibongo'' form a collective memory, conscience and soul of an African society, and they are spiritually-centered oral narratives which are repositories of Indigenous wisdom". ''Izibongo'', according to Fikeni, express both a oneness with the universe and a collective memory, and an individuality rooted in history. Jeff Opland also stated that earlier studies (into the 1970s) of Bantu poetry tended to focus on "the poetry of chiefs and prominent people", though he recognized a number of insightful studies on poetry by women, for instance, starting in the 1970s.

References

Zulu literature Zulu words and phrases Poetic forms {{SouthAfrica-stub

Subject matter

See also

References