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Imbongi Nezibongo; The Xhosa Tribal Poet and the Contemporary Poetic Tradition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2020

Jeff Opland
Jeff Opland*
Affiliation:
University of Durban-Westville, Durban, Natal, South Africa
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Abstract

A tradition of oral poetry (izibongo) still exists among the Xhosa-speaking tribes of South Africa, but as yet few analytical studies based on fieldwork have been published. The Xhosa tradition differs in some respects from the Serbo-Croatian tradition as defined by Milman Parry and Albert Lord, though there are elements common to both traditions. Parry and Lord concentrated attention on the guslar, an improvising epic poet, but the Xhosa tribal poet (imbongi) should be seen in the context of all poetic activities in his community. The tradition of Xhosa izibongo is complex, consisting of at least four distinct activities: many Xhosa tribesmen have the ability to compose poetry on the inspiration of the moment; most Xhosas commit to memory traditional poems or poems of their own composition; the imbongi, a figure of considerable importance and influence in traditional society, generally composes his refined poetry in performance; and some literate Xhosas commit their poetry to writing. Each of these four kinds of poetic production is significantly different from the others, but each also influences the others.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 90 , Issue 2 , March 1975 , pp. 185 - 208
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1975

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References

1 “The Distribution of Oral Literature in the Old World: A Preliminary Survey,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 69 (1939), 77–94. See H. M. and N. K. Chadwick, The Growth of Literature, 3 vols. (Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1932–40).

2 Archie Mafeje, “The Role of the Bard in a Contemporary African Community,” Journal of African Languages, 6 (1967), 193. The poet is Melikhaya Mbutuma, imbongi of Chief Sabata Dalindyebo (A! Jonguhlanga!) of the Thembu tribe. Mafeje's translations are unfortunately slanted on occasion to suit his political viewpoint. Another article by Mafeje with useful accounts of an imbongi in action is “A Chief Visits Town,” Journal of Local Administration Overseas, 2 (1963), 88–99.

3 See my article “Scop and Imbongi: Anglo-Saxon and Bantu Oral Poets,” English Studies in Africa, 14 (1971), 161–78. The discussion of Cope's book appears on pp. 169–71.

4 Parry's papers, including his hitherto unpublished M.A. thesis, have been conveniently collected by his son and published as The Making of Homeric Verse: The Collected Papers of Milman Parry, ed. Adam Parry (Oxford: Clarendon, 1970). The most convenient statement of Lord's theories is Albert B. Lord, The Singer of Tales (1960; rpt. New York: Atheneum, 1965).

5 The following is a list of analytical works in English on the Xhosa oral tradition or on the Southern Bantu tradition (including the Xhosa) in general: G. P. Lestrade, “Bantu Praise-Poems,” The Critic, 4 (1935), 1–10; Lestrade, “Traditional Literature,” in The Bantu-Speaking Tribes of South Africa: An Ethnographical Survey, ed. I. Schapera (Cape Town: Maskew Miller, 1937); H. I. E. Dhlomo, “African Drama and Poetry,” The South African Outlook, 69 (1939), 88–90; A. C. Jordan, “Samuel Edward Krune Mqhayi,” The South African Outlook, 75 (1945), 135–38; B. W. Vilakazi, “The Oral and Written Literature in Nguni,” Diss. Univ. of the Witwatersrand 1945; R. H. W. Shepherd, “Bantu Literature,” Standpunte, 28 (1953), 44–54; A. C. Jordan, Towards an African Literature (1957–59; rpt. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1973); P.-D. Beuchat, Do the Bantu Have a Literature?, Paper No. 7 (Johannesburg: Institute for the Study of Man in Africa, 1962); Archie Mafeje, “The Role of the Bard,” see n. 2; J. Opland, “Two Xhosa Oral Poems,” Papers in African Languages 1970 (Cape Town: School of African Studies, Univ. of Cape Town, 1970); Opland, “A Comparative Study of the Anglo-Saxon and Xhosa Traditions of Oral Poetry, with Special Reference to the Singer Theory,” Diss. Univ. of Cape Town 1973.

6 My conclusions are based on fieldwork in the Transkei, the Ciskei, and Cape Town at various times from Aug. 1969 to the present. In this time I have worked with oral poets from the Mfengu, Rharhabe, Gcaleka, Thembu, Hlubi, and Bhaca tribes; I was told in Mount Ayliff that there are currently no poets among the amaXesibe; I have not yet met Mpondo or Mpondomise poets. I gratefully acknowledge the invaluable assistance afforded me by the award of Lestrade Scholarships in 1970 and 1971, without which the fieldwork would not have been possible. In the preparation of this article I received assistance from my former colleague, Silas Tindleni, for which I am also grateful, as I am to Herbert Pahl for kindly and patiently checking the transcriptions and translations of texts. In the article, numbers in parentheses after extracts from poems or interviews refer to entries in the catalog to my collection of tapes; copies of many of these tapes are housed in the Center for the Study of Oral Literature at Harvard Univ. Translations that follow the poetry are the collective product of consultations with the poets themselves and other informed Xhosas.

7 Diaries of early travelers among the Xhosas confirm the existence of preliterate poetry. There is, e.g., this passage from Alberti's diary: “When the hunting party has returned to the neighbourhood of its village, the one who inflicted the first wound on the lion that was killed, is hidden from view by shields held in front of him. At the same time one of the hunters leaves the troop and praises the courage of the slayer with a screaming voice, accompanied by a variety of leaps, and then returns again, when another one repeats the performance during which the others incessantly shout hi! hi! hi! and beat their shields with knobkirries at the same time. This is continued until one has really reached the village” (Ludwig Alberti's Account of the Tribal Life and Customs of the Xhosa in 1807, trans. William Fehr, Cape Town: Balkema, 1968, p. 77).

8 For the sake of simplicity, I eliminate from consideration here Xhosa song, which is quite distinct from poetry in performance, though the texts of individual songs may be indistinguishable in form from the texts of poems.

9 As far as possible I shall retain the Xhosa verb in the text that follows in preference to the common English translation “to praise” because of the misleading connotations of the English word; similarly, I shall prefer izibongo to “praise poetry.”

10 See the biographical entry on Mfamana in Yvonne Huskisson, The Bantu Composers of Southern Africa (Johannesburg: South African Broadcasting Corp., 1969).

11 On the ama Ngwane see N. J. van Warmelo, History of Matiwane and the amaNgwane Tribe, Ethnological Publications, No. 7 (Pretoria: The Government Printer, 1938). In printing this and all subsequent extracts from poems in my collection, I start a new line whenever the poet pauses for breath; this policy, unsatisfactory in some ways, has the advantage here of suggesting a significant aspect of the style of delivery.

12 For further distinctions in the roles of improvisers and memorizers see my “Two Xhosa Oral Poems,” p. 88; the distinction between improvising and memorizing in the Xhosa tradition is examined in greater detail in my “Praise Poems as Historical Sources,” in Beyond the Cape Frontier: Studies in the History of the Transkei and Ciskei, ed. Christopher Saunders and Robin Derriccurt (London: Longman, 1974), pp. 1–37.

13 The autobiography of the great Xhosa poet S. E. K. Mqhayi, UMqhayi waseNtabozuko (1939; rpt. Lovedale: Lovedale Press, 1964), mentions the composition of izibongo about cattle, dogs, and boys while herding (p. 66). Later in the book Mqhayi quotes a poem that another boy used to sing in his praise (p. 79).

14 H. M. Ndawo has collected some Hlubi clan izibongo in his book Iziduko Zama-Hlubi (Lovedale: Lovedale Press, 1939) and izibongo of Hlubi and Bhaca chiefs in his Izibongo Zenkosi Zama-Hlubi NezamaBàca (Marianhill, Natal: Marianhill Mission Press, 1928). The fullest collection of Xhosa izibongo is W. B. Rubusana's Zemk' linkomo Magwalandini, 2nd ed. (London: Butler & Tanner, 1911). Rubusana has izibongo of chiefs on pp. 229–348, izibongo of cattle and horses on pp. 365–78, and autobiographical izibongo, on pp. 379–468.

15 I was reminded of this incident on 14 Oct. 1971 at the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the School of African Studies at the Univ. of Cape Town. After the Principal, Sir Richard Luyt, had delivered an address, a Xhosa imbongi from Nyanga, Bester Mdyosi, sang in praise of him (249). Mdyosi's improvised izibongo was fluent, and was inspired by and referred to the Principal's speech. This was followed by an address by the Deputy Principal, D. P. Inskip, who was in turn apostrophized by a 16-year-old Sotho poet, Bereng Monakale. In this case the poem had been composed in advance (by a member of the university staff) and Bereng had memorized it. Unfortunately, halfway through, he forgot his lines, and in an uncomfortable silence he covered his embarrassment by rearranging the blanket he was wearing before he caught up his recitation once again (250). This incident and the one involving Msila and Wilson demonstrated the limitations of the memorizer.

16 The translation is conjectural, since the grammar has become faulty in transmission.

17 “Traditional Literature,” p. 296 (see n. 5 above). Failure to appreciate the element of improvisation in oral literature leads Lestrade to write elsewhere of “the vicissitudes of a purely word-of-mouth tradition: variations in text, corruptions of language leading sometimes to complete unintelligibility, instability of content and the inevitable disappearance of appreciable sections of the traditional literary heritage” (“European Influences upon the Development of Bantu Language and Literature,” in Western Civilization and the Natives of South Africa, ed. I. Schapera, London: Routledge, 1934, p. 122). This may be true of a purely memorial tradition, but is unsatisfactory as a blanket description of a tradition like the Xhosa that consists of both improvisational and memorial elements.

18 The exception is the Thembu imbongi Edmund Goduka Sihele, who memorizes his poetry, but Sihele is not highly thought of as a poet, and in many ways owes his official status to political factors. In fairness to Lestrade, the possibility of a radical change in the tradition over the past few years must not be ruled out, so that both his observations and mine 30 years later might be accurate.

19 Three izibongo of chiefs are common to Rubusana's and Ndawo's collections, and a comparison of these short poems reveals variations consonant with memorial transmission.

20 Information contained in this and the following paragraph is derived from the consensus of opinions of chiefs, teachers, poets, and officials in the Transkei and the Ciskei. All informants corroborate these conclusions.

21 I would suggest that it is some confusion between the categories of poets I present in this article, or an alteration of the tradition, that leads Harold Scheub to write of “a female mbongi” in his article “The Technique of the Expansible Image in Xhosa Ntsomi -Performances,” Research in African Literatures, 1 (1970), 120.

22 See, for a start, B. A. Pauw, “Patterns of Christianization among the Tswana and the Xhosa-Speaking Peoples,” in African Systems of Thought: Studies Presented and Discussed at the Third International African Seminar in Salisbury, December, I960 (London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1965), pp. 240–57.

23 See David Rycroft, “Melodic Features in Zulu Eulogistic Recitation,” African Language Studies, 1 (1960), 60–78. Unfortunately, Rycroft seems to base his conclusions on analyses of readings of written poems and not on field recordings. His later article, “Zulu and Xhosa Praise Poetry and Song,” African Music, 3 (1962), 79–85, deals with Zulu praise poetry and Xhosa song.

24 Ufaf olumadolo occurs regularly in my tape collection (e.g., in item 115, an izibongo sung by Nelson Mabunu and quoted later in this article), in contemporary written izibongo of Matanzima, and in a poem by Mqhayi printed on p. 479 of Rubusana's Zemk' Iinkomo (see also p. 267); uhlwath' olumadolo appears in 2 separate izibongo in Zemk' Iinkomo on pp. 231 and 261, and in a poem in Mqhayi's novel Ityala Lama Wele (see n. 45 below); ufaf olundaba and ufaf oluntamo both occur in poems in my collection sung by Nelson Mabunu.

25 “Traditional Literature” and “Bantu Praise-Poems.”

26 It is difficult to resist referring at this point to the remarkable structural similarity between this passage and one that occurs at the end of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde:

Swich fyn hath, lo, this Troilus for love!

Swich fyn hath al his grete worthynesse!

Swich fyn hath his estat real above,

Swich fyn his lust, swich fyn hath his noblesse!

Swich fyn hath false worldes brotelnesse! (v.1828–32) Commenting on this passage, A. C. Spearing writes: “It would be difficult to imagine a simpler rhetoric than this; though one must note the art with which the homiletic power of the first three 'Swich fyn hath's is unexpectedly intensified by the interrupting variation of the fourth line and the resumption of the original pattern in the fifth. It is clear at least, I think, that this is an oral rhetoric, and demands reading aloud if it is to be fully appreciated” (Criticism and Medieval Poetry, 2nd ed., London: Edward Arnold, 1972, p. 20).

27 “African Drama and Poetry.” Poems strikingly similar in spirit and technique to Xhosa izibongo can be found in the Old Testament, like Moses' song of triumph in Exodus xv, and Deborah's song in Judges v.

28 “Melodic Features,” passim. A recent article by John E. Kaemmer concluded with an appeal for more intensive research into the role of tone in the oral literature of Southern Africa: see his “Tone Riddles from Southern Mozambique: Titekatekani of the Tshwa,” Research in African Literatures, 3 (1972), 5–20.

29 Camagu is the word uttered when the first blood is spilled during a ritual sacrifice, and serves to ensure the sympathy of the ancestors. This passage affords a beautiful example of the use of traditional imagery in reference to Christian or Western phenomena.

30 Mzimvubu means “the dwelling place of the hippopotamus.”

31 The World Council of Churches had recently voted to aid terrorist activity against South Africa. The deception of the missionaries has become a traditional theme: cf. 11. 128–36 of item 118, the poem by Manisi quoted later in this article.

32 On the fifth syllable of this line Mabunu clapped his hands to simulate the sound of impact.

33 Ncincilili is frequently used as a concluding formula by iimbongi and by writers imitating the traditional style of the imbongi. Some iimbongi have their own distinctive formulas, others may vary their endings, but these traditional conclusions are a feature of the imbongi's izibongo alone, and would not be used by the first two categories of poets discussed above except in conscious imitation of the imbongi.

34 Letshitshiba has no meaning, but is merely a nonce exclamation to attract attention.

35 Anthropologists may dispute this point, but I am here repeating what Manisi implies. The reinterpretation of myths and legends among the Bantu is of some political importance, as Gerald Sack pointed out in a paper read at a conference on the history of the Transkei and the Ciskei in Grahamstown on 5 Feb. 1973.

36 When dancing, men may imitate the movements of their favorite oxen.

37 Birds of ill omen.

38 According to a popular folktale, the chameleon, because of its slowness, lost a crucial race which led to the introduction of Death to mankind.

39 Izibongo Zeenkosi Zama Xhosa (Lovedale: Lovedale Press, 1952) and Inguqu (Bolotwa: Khundulu Methodist School, 1954).

40 Daniel P. Kunene and Randal A. Kirsch, The Beginning of South African Vernacular Literature (Los Angeles: African Studies Assn., 1967).

41 Huna, ULindipasi (Cape Town: Via Afrika, 1966) and Jolobe, Umyezo, 3rd ed., Bantu Treasury, No. 2 (1936; rpt. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand Univ. Press, 1957), pp. 85–110. ULindipasi has a useful critical introd. in Xhosa by D. N. Jafta on Xhosa poetry in general.

42 “The Communication Line between Poet and Public,” The Example of Shakespeare (London: Longman, 1970), p. 73.

43 “The Conception and Development of Poetry in Zulu,” Bantu Studies, 12(1938), 105–34.

44 In Umyezo, pp. 85–86. The translation is Jolobe's own, and was published together with 3 other poems translated from Umyezo as Poems of an African (Lovedale: Lovedale Press, 1946).

45 Ityala LamaWele, 2nd ed. (1914; rpt. Lovedale: Lovedale Press, 1931). A subsequent ed. has appeared in the revised Xhosa orthography, but since it is abridged I quote from the 2nd ed., though I revise the orthography.

46 The concluding ideophones express onomatopoeically the actions of striding out (gxanyd) and coming to a sudden stop (ngxi). Note the clever play on the formula ncincilili. I have referred to the translation by W. G. Bennie, published together with a translation of another fine poem from Ityala Lama Wele in Bennie's “Two Xhosa Poems in English Renderings,” The Critic, 4 (1936), 99–104.

47 Of particular interest are 3 poems by Yako that describe performances by Manisi, “Izibongo ngoMnu. Elijah Cecil Makiwane,” “Ukuvulwa kweOfisi kaChief Kaizer D. Matanzima, B.A., eQamata,” and “Ngemini kaNtsikana eRini kwakunye nembongi uManisi” in Ikhwezi (Lovedale: Lovedale Press, 1967). Another collection of poems by Yako containing some in traditional style is Umtha Welanga (Johannesburg: Afrikaanse Pers Booksellers, n.d.).