Synopsis
Shona author A.C. Hodza compiled this collection, anthropologist G. Fortune edited, translated, and annotated it, the joint project resulting from years of cooperation in the Department of African Languages, University of Rhodesia. Many chiefs and head- men contributed valuable information on meanings and origins. The collection includes praise poetry, love poems, tributes, fighting boasts, and professional boasts, and is, of course, only a small fraction of the body of Shona oral literature. Numerous other genre exist.
Review
The book is a thoroughly scholarly work, carefully annotated and cross referenced. The commentary is informed and provides an intriguing account of Shona culture, particularly of Shona ceremony, oral tradition, and social history. The work stands alongside previous volumes dealing with neighboring peoples, notably I. Schapera (the Tswana), H. Dieterlen and F. Kohler (the Sotho), T. Cope (the Zulu), and others. It represents a valuable contribution to African studies, especially in the fields of folklore, linguistics, and social anthropology. - Thomas F. Johnston, Anthropos
Authors
No bio for Aaron C. Hodza yet.
George Fortune was the first Professor of what is now the Department of African Languages and Literatures at the University of Zimbabwe. He died in 2012.
