Oral Literature Of The Marakwet Of Kenya

A comprehensive and innovative collection of African oral traditions from among the Marakwet of Kenya

Oral Literature of the Maasai offers an extensive collection of types of oral literature: oral narratives; proverbs; riddles; and a variety of songs for different occasions. The versions in this book were collected by the author from a specific Maasai community in Kajiado County of Kenya. The author listened to many of the narratives and participated in many proverb and riddle telling sessions as she grew up in her Ilbissil village of Kajiado Central Sub-county. However, she recorded most of the examples of oral literature in the early seventies with the help of her mother, who performed the role of the oral artist. Many songs were recorded from live performances. The examples ring with individuality, while also revealing a comprehensive way of life of a people. The images in the literature reveal the concrete life of the Maasai – people living closely with their livestock and engaged in constant struggle with the environment. But like all important literature, the materials here ultimately reveal a people with its moral and spiritual concerns, grappling with questions of human values and relations, struggling for a better social order. This book recommends itself to the general reader. However, the book is more than this: it includes stimulating discussions of examples, as well as review questions and exercises. The book is highly recommended to students of oral literature at secondary school level and at the university.

This is a new title from the Kenyan publisher who is publishing works of scholarship on the oral literature of the different groups in Kenya. The background is the rich repository in oral literature of the enduring wisdom and cultural values of the peoples of Africa. Within the proverbs and riddles, oral narratives and songs, philosophical and material cultures are captured and expressed. These ethnic-based oral literature titles seek to preserve this wisdom in the written form. The literature of the Embu and Mbeere of Eastern Kenya is fully explored here by a renowned scholar and writer on oral literature. She covers the historical and cultural background; genres of oral literature and their performance; form and style; and the social functions of oral literature. Literary texts examined are narratives, oral poetry, proverbs, and riddles and puzzles.

The Marakwet of Kenya is a study of a sub-group of the greater Kalenjin community, the majority of whom live in the Rift Valley Province of Kenya. It is an excellent introduction to the study of an African community in transition, both from its belief systems and in its broad structure and organisation. This work is invaluable to any student of comparative studies; whether in sociology, anthropology, economics or history.