Karisi is the name given by the

Nyanga people The Nyanga (also ''Banianga'', ''Banyanga'', ''Kinyanga'', ''Nianga'' or ''Nyangas'') are a Bantu people in the African Great Lakes region. Today they live predominantly in the Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, near the frontier ...

(of the

African Great Lakes The African Great Lakes (; ) are a series of lakes constituting the part of the Rift Valley lakes in and around the East African Rift. The series includes Lake Victoria, the second-largest freshwater lake in the world by area; Lake Tangan ...

) to oral poems of epic length. It is one of a number of oral genres recognized by the Nyanga; the best known karisi is the

Mwindo epic The ''Mwindo'' epic is an oral tale from the Congo told by the Nyanga people. The origins and creation of the Mwindo epic are mostly unknown since the story is only passed down orally. A version of the story was recorded by Kahombo Mateene and Da ...

, sometimes called the national epic of the Nyanga. Like similar genres from nearby cultures, the karisi has an

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

hero at the center, and the performance is intricate and complex, involving many characters interacting with the central character, and involves "dancing, singing, chanting, costuming ..., playing musical instruments, mimicry, screaming, praise giving, gift giving, and food and beverage distributions". The origins of the genre may lie among a religious rite linked to the

Pygmy peoples In anthropology, pygmy peoples are ethnic groups whose average height is unusually short. The term pygmyism is used to describe the phenotype of endemic short stature (as opposed to disproportionate dwarfism occurring in isolated cases in a po ...

References

{{Reflist Epic poetry Nyanga Oral literature Genres of poetry