DOCSLIB.ORG

Introduction

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Introduction INTRODUCTION In order to treat African indigenous literature in its own right, our main focus of attention should be on the established cultural traditions and historical experiences, together with those aspects of the social and political life of the Africans which are the most helpful sources of our inspiration and techniques. The transformation of African literatures from traditional form to high standard has its own well-founded historical reasons. It is necessary, therefore, to understand that the critical study of the African literary landscape requires setting out criteria for its evaluation. This view is gaining convincing ground in contemporary Africa that oral literature should not be judged by the criteria which have been used in the evaluation of non-African literatures and cultures, though considering universal similarities is of fundamental importance. In this connection, Palmer (1979: 2) argues that if the purpose of criticism is to display as accurately as possible the genuine quality of a work, then our aim should be to use criteria which will be the most useful in bringing out that genuine quality. When we study folklore genres in a broader literary form, we reframe them to make our judgement and show their artistic functions in a particular light. By using certain reliable yardsticks, we can explore oral literature in order to construct the narrators’ worldviews in a different way and develop our own sense of poetic beauty and identity. One of the central points I have given prominence is that oral tradition is also a kind of history about the past situations; and it is, therefore, not surprising to find it in the form of a historical structure which conforms to the generic Oromo model. Furthermore, literary tradition, like human history, is anecdotal in that it contains a particular amusing event which helps scholars construct new ideas and values. The way Oromo oral literary genres have been told thus inevitably reflects intriguing historical events, as well as the interests and motives of those traditional custodians (artists) who pass down the dramatic performances of their times to posterity. If our task is to enquire into the artistic sense and aesthetic world of African oral narrative, we must first and foremost convince ourselves that an oral text as an academic subject has its own poetic meaning and peculiar characteristics. Here, I have also suggested that a qualification of such belief is necessary because it avoids bewilderment and paves the way for drawing a concrete research strategy in this field of study. The new trend in Oromo oral 2 literary studies is to address the endangered treasured arts of the past within the framework of historical setting; and in the process, to unfold the untold stories. This may be seen, as it used to be, by certain individuals and groups, strange and disturbing. As many others, my effort is to recover the valuable literary culture that has been lost. The aim of exploring oral literature in a contemporary setting is to transform it from abstract narrative to expressive form (intellectual discourse); and in this respect, it seems hard to make a distinction between the intriguing nature of oral art and modern art. In thematic and aesthetic terms, verbal art shares common ground with modern fictions simply because both are meant for teaching and entertaining through the medium of artistic language and images; which when combined, can create a social mirror and desirable effects. Through the historic moment, the language and character revelation may take a different form. We find in both, common characteristics: fitting descriptions, the portrayal of certain images relevant to social situations, within which the characters operate, and other creative techniques and devices. Surely it is possible to apply a modern style of writing to oral literature, but what is most important here is to try to distinguish the process by which each literary art comes into being, its specific function in a given space and time, and the context within which it is told or written. This is probably what makes us grasp the distinction between traditional arts and the elite literature (modern fiction). It is most likely that besides formal elements, the former involves national pride, ethical issues and identities; whereas the latter focuses mainly on formal elements such as characters, devices, plot, artistic merit and others. The literate world has inherited a comprehensive body of knowledge from the pre-literate world of verbal communication. This compendium of oral tradition from whatever ultimate origin is practically universal in character both in time and space. Being subject to the skilled and the unskilled of those who pass down the tradition, Oromo oral literature has undergone continuous changes over the course of changing generations. These changes have significant effects on its functions and permanence as literary culture. This work is the outcome of a growing sense that one of the defining characteristics of recent Oromo culture and literature has been its insistence on examining the marginalized identity, and 3 that literary culture as the quest for knowledge and identity empowerment, has come to be the focus of my concern. I have specifically chosen the representative genres and the historical moments as points of greater emphasis mainly because I believe that the comprehensive textual and contextual approach will inevitably lead me to a better understanding of the functions of this kind of literature, as well as its intriguing nature. The Oromo oral narrative is the representation of a new wave of cultural and literary movement that reflects post-modernism and contemporary critical methods in which the indigenous literary culture is resituated in the context of other modern literatures, without being dictated by the traditional assumptions based on rigid analyses; and which aims at developing the concept of cultural identity and democratic conduct. The work involves a broad interdisciplinary discourse of some of the vital issues concerning the greater sensitivity of representation, interpretation and evaluation of folklore genres. Oral narrative critics need to move beyond the stereotyped discourse and the worn generalizations about the image of the past. The aesthetic categories of Oromo verbal art still remain unknown to most modern critics, and it is, therefore, necessary to employ New Historicism or deconstructive approach to our study in which oral literary texts are regarded as a material product emerging out of social, cultural and political situations. My attempt is, therefore, to open up Oromo oral literary universe to readers, students and scholars and to explore the way the interplay of culture and oral literature has enabled the society to develop a complex social system characterized by collectivism and egalitarian norms. The exploration of the meanings and themes of oral narratives in a broader social context and the significant role the variant folklore genres play in maintaining collective wisdom, national identity, solidarity and traditional moral values are also points of great concern in this study. The search for new ideas, the interpretation of cultural and literary events are ceaseless human activities and every step forward seeking alternative lifestyle and broadening knowledge demands a new way of thinking which enables man to re-assess the existing values and modes of behaviour. In every human civilization, the process of successful social transformation depends upon the creative needs of the new generations and their continuous effort to re-construct or recreate the wisdom of their ancestors, which inspires a greater sense of freedom, self-respect and dignity. This work presents a corpus of oral tradition of the Gadaa egalitarian movement without which the Oromo can hardly be understood as an independent nation in cultural terms. It discusses 4 the practical critique, the different ways in which oral literature can be evaluated and how this body of knowledge serves as a unifying and nationalizing factor when utilized by a marginalized nation seeking to establish cultural identity, emphasizing the investigation of the functions of various literary genres in cultural and historical situations. I think, the effort made to examine and clarify the new trends in scholarship and criticism will enrich our sense of the complexity of Oromo oral art and historical experience. Though each genre is discussed within the scope of its peculiar characteristics, my intention in broader terms is to discuss the universal and peculiar features of Oromo folklore and the way this body of knowledge functions as historical and cultural evidence. It seems to me most interestingly connecting the study of Oromo culture and literature in its general approach to a universal set of concerns; all of them related to human virtues and follies. In my argument, I have emphasized that the oral narrative tradition is constituted by poetic configurations and the effective aesthetic response can happen if the mode of analysis of these configurations takes into account the interpretive dimensions and historical reception as one of the vital criteria. The study of oral tradition requires an ability to give coherent shape to each literary genre by redefining and interpreting its artistic role so that it reflects contemporary needs and outlook. The primary object of the work is contextual investigation (Critical Practice) and appreciation rather than Critical Theory, though the two
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Orality in Writing: Its Cultural and Political Function in Anglophone African, African-Caribbean, and African-Canadian Poetry
    ORALITY IN WRITING: ITS CULTURAL AND POLITICAL FUNCTION IN ANGLOPHONE AFRICAN, AFRICAN-CARIBBEAN, AND AFRICAN-CANADIAN POETRY A Thesis submitted to the College of Graduate Studies and Research in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon By Yaw Adu-Gyamfi Spring 1999 © Copyright Yaw Adu-Gyamfi, 1999. All rights reserved. National Ubrary Bib!iotheque nationale 1+1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Ottawa ON K1 A ON4 Canada Canada Your file Vol", ,eferet1C8 Our file Not,e ,life,encs The author has granted a non­ L' auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant a la National Library of Canada to Bibliotheque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, preter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette these sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format electronique. The author retains ownership of the L' auteur conserve la propriete du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protege cette these. thesis nor substantial extracts from it Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permISSlOn. autorisation. 0-612-37868-3 Canada UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN College of Graduate Studies and Research SUMMARY OF DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Yaw Adu-Gyamfi Department of English Spring 1999 -EXAMINING COMMITTEE: Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Where Now the Harp? Listening for the Sounds of Old English Verse, from Beowulf to the Twentieth Century
    Oral Tradition, 24/2 (2009): 485-502 Where Now the Harp? Listening for the Sounds of Old English Verse, from Beowulf to the Twentieth Century Chris Jones nis þær hearpan sweg, / gomen in geardum, swylce ðær iu wæron (2458b-59)1 There is no sound of the harp, delight in courts, as there once were The way to learn the music of verse is to listen to it. (Pound 1951:56) Even within an advanced print culture, poetry arguably never escapes the oral dimension. For Ezra Pound, whose highly intertextual epic The Cantos, so conscious of its page appearance, could only be the product of such a print culture, poetry was nevertheless “an art of pure sound,” the future of which in English was to be the “orchestration” of different European systems of sound-patterning (Pound 1973:33). Verbal orchestration is meaningless without auditors; it goes without saying that the notion of oral literature simultaneously implies the concept of aural literature. This much is also evident from the very beginning of Beowulf: Hwæt, we Gar-Dena in geardagum, / þeodcyninga þrym gefrunon . (“Listen, we have heard of the Spear-Danes in times past, of the glory of the people’s kings . ,” lines 1-2). While the conventionality of the opening might suggest the evocation of a formulaic idiom often associated with oral composition,2 the emphasis is clearly on aurality, on hearing a voice. Much work has been done in recent decades on the evidence in Old English written texts for a poetics that draws on compositional methods derived from an oral culture, either as it had survived into a period of widespread literacy, or as it was imagined to have once existed.3 This essay will not directly address that valuable rehabilitation of oral-formulaic theory into a more sophisticated understanding of early medieval scribal culture, although it will draw on it at times.
    [Show full text]
  • African Language Books for Children: Issues for Authors Viv Edwards University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by eCommons@AKU eCommons@AKU Institute for Educational Development, East Africa AKU-East Africa January 2011 African language books for children: issues for authors Viv Edwards University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom Jacob Marriote Ngwaru Aga Khan University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://ecommons.aku.edu/eastafrica_ied Part of the African Languages and Societies Commons Recommended Citation Edwards, V., Ngwaru, J. M. (2011). African language books for children: issues for authors. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 25(2), 123-137. Available at: http://ecommons.aku.edu/eastafrica_ied/14 Language, Culture and Curriculum ISSN: 0790-8318 (Print) 1747-7573 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rlcc20 African language books for children: issues for authors Viv Edwards & Jacob Marriote Ngwaru To cite this article: Viv Edwards & Jacob Marriote Ngwaru (2012) African language books for children: issues for authors, Language, Culture and Curriculum, 25:2, 123-137, DOI: 10.1080/07908318.2011.629051 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2011.629051 Published online: 25 Oct 2011. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 201 View related articles Citing articles: 5 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rlcc20 Download by: [INASP - Tanzania] Date: 14 February 2017,
    [Show full text]
  • The Development of Literate Potential in Literature-Based and Skills-Based Classrooms Zhihui Fang, University of Florida
    The Development of Literate Potential The Development of Literate Potential in Literature-Based and Skills-Based Classrooms Zhihui Fang, University of Florida Abstract This study examined young children’s developing understand- ing of written discourse in two instructional settings: literature-based and skills-based. Forty-one first graders were each requested to dictate two “written” stories for others to read at the beginning and end of the school year. The 82 texts were analyzed for their cohesive harmony, conformity to the socioculturally-codified genre conventions, and use of specific written language features. Quantitative analysis revealed statistically sig- nificant increases in cohesion and genre scores, but only marginal gains in the written language features measures. Further, the development of such written discourse knowledge was not significantly impacted by the instructional context. Qualitative analysis revealed that the children’s texts demonstrated impressive advances in the written mode of organiz- ing and communicating information to others, despite evidence of traces of oral discourse patterns and immature control over diverse genres. These findings are discussed in light of relevant literacy research and practice. Literacy is not a natural outgrowth from orality. Becoming literate in our soci- ety requires that children learn to take control over the written mode of communi- cation. In order to do this, they must come to terms with certain features of written discourse: its sustained organization, its characteristic rhythms and structures, its distinctive grammar, and its disembedded quality (Kress, 1994; Olson & Torrance, 1981; Wood, 1998). While home and community are important to the development of a literate mind, it is the school that is commonly considered the most important site for children’s literacy development.
    [Show full text]
  • Oral Tradition and Book Culture
    Edited by Pertti Anttonen,Cecilia af Forselles af Anttonen,Cecilia Pertti by Edited and Kirsti Salmi-Niklander Kirsti and A new interdisciplinary interest has risen to study interconnections between oral tradition and book culture. In addition to the use and dissemination of printed books, newspapers etc., book culture denotes manuscript media and the circulation of written documents of oral tradition in and through the archive, into published collections. Book culture also intertwines the process of framing and defining oral genres Oral Tradition and Book and Culture Oral Tradition with literary interests and ideologies. The present volume is highly relevant to anyone interested in oral cultures and their relationship to the culture of writing and publishing. Oral Tradition The questions discussed include the following: How have printing and book publishing set terms for oral tradition scholarship? How have the practices of reading affected the circulation of oral traditions? Which and Book Culture books and publishing projects have played a key role in this and how? How have the written representations of oral traditions, as well as the Edited by roles of editors and publishers, introduced authorship to materials Pertti Anttonen, Cecilia af Forselles and Kirsti Salmi-Niklander customarily regarded as anonymous and collective? The editors of the anthology are Dr. Pertti Anttonen, Professor of Cultural Studies, especially Folklore Studies at the University of Eastern Finland, Dr. Cecilia af Forselles, Director of The Library of the Finnish Literature Society, and Dr. Kirsti Salmi-Niklander, University Lecturer in Folklore Studies at the University of Helsinki. studia fennica folkloristica 24 isbn 978-951-858-007-5 00.09; 81 9789518580075 www.finlit.fi/kirjat Studia Fennica studia fennica anthropologica ethnologica folkloristica historica linguistica litteraria Folkloristica Studia Fennica Folkloristica 24 T F L S (SKS) was founded in 1831 and has, from the very beginning, engaged in publishing operations.
    [Show full text]
  • Orality, Literacy and Pedagogical Implications in Traditional African Societies: the Bakor Experience in Cross River State, Nigeria
    International Journal of African History Cultures and Traditions Vol.1, No.2, pp. 60-81, September 2014 Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK (www.eajournals.org) ORALITY, LITERACY AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS IN TRADITIONAL AFRICAN SOCIETIES: THE BAKOR EXPERIENCE IN CROSS RIVER STATE, NIGERIA. Francis M. Ganyi Department of English and Literary Studies, University Of Calabar ABSTRACT: Knowledge acquisition, like all human interaction in the world depends on and is enhanced through verbal or written forms which, today, exist at parallels but are never dichotomous, yet oral cultures seem to be more pervasive than written cultures in many parts of the world. History and knowledge systems are located in memory, the personal lives, traditions and the mythical past of all communities in the world. Today, literature has commonly been associated with written forms yet most other cultures of the world, apart from western cultures, have produced a wide range of literary material all encoded in verbal or non-written genres. Oral discourses are, therefore, predominant in most indigenous communities all over the world and knowledge systems have as such been constructed and communicated through these oral discourses or verbal systems, with emphasis on graphic contextual performances. African verbal forms, perhaps, constitute the largest stock of literary material performed, sung or spoken in numerous social or ritualistic contexts. These enhance encoding of new meaning and knowledge through the transmission of ideas and in most contexts, oral or verbal communication surpasses all other forms of communication. Despite this importance of orality, the supposed supremacy of a scientific consciousness which is enhanced by writing has become coterminous with the relegation of verbal performances leading to the failure to understand the nature and function of oral literature and its pedagogical content amongst oral cultures.
    [Show full text]
  • Folklore, Orality and Tradition
    Chapter-1 Introduction: Folklore, Orality and Tradition The study of folklore is inclusive of many different disciplines that overlap and intermingle with each other. Disciplines like anthropology, psychology, sociology, literary studies and women’s studies, linguistics, all come together to study the folklore in wider terms. It becomes essential to understand and analyse folk literature in the light of above disciplines to get a better understanding of the culture and history behind the given oral literature. Folklore surpasses boundaries of time in a way that it brings the culture and civilization of the past and merges it with the future for a better understanding. It continuously flows with the civilization by adopting different forms on the course of its journey. That way, it never gets struck in one time. It is not a static thing to be stored and preserved in any one form which struts itself as the ‘original. It is continuously and spontaneously being produced by the people who are blissfully ignorant of its various facets and its profound effect on the modern civilization. It is no more a thing of the rural or semi-urban masses but it is very much a part of the modern world. Many attempts have been made to define, categorize and theorize the term ‘folklore’ through words that can give it a concrete meaning. Folklore does not only include what is passed orally from one generation to another rather it encompasses everything including the cultural norms, behavioral codes, individual identities, feelings and emotions, religious beliefs, and experiences of not only a particular race or nationality but also of each individual living through it.
    [Show full text]
  • Doconst,M!Sons
    Doconst,m!sons ED 1.61 038 ( CS 204 406 AUTHOR Day, Robert, Ed.; Weaver, Gail Cohen,'Ed. TITLE Creative Writing its the Classroom: An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Resources (K-12). INSTITUTION ERIC Clearinghouse on Xeaaing and Communication Skills, Urbana, Ill.; National Council of Teachers of English, Uibana, Ill. SPOONS AGENCY National Inst. of Education (DHEW), Washington, D.C. PUB DATE 78 CONTRACT 400-75-0029 NOTE . 122p. AVAILABLE FROM National 'Council of Teachers of English, 1111 Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801 (Stock No. 09284, $4.75 member, $5.50 non-member) -141BS PRICE M7-$0.83 HC -$6.01 Plus Postage. DTSCRIPTORS *Annotated ibliographies; *ComposIption (Literary); *Creative Writing; Drama; Elementary Secondary -Education; Fiction; Poetry; *Resource Materials; *Teaching Techniques; *Theories IDENTIFIERS Information'Analysis-Products ABSTRACT This bibliography annotates over 700 'books and,, articles published from 1950 to 1976 that discuss the teaching of -creative writing in the elementary and secondary classroom. It'is intended to enable teachers to lotate a variety of materials to aid in planning teaching approaches and techniques and to help teachers and students pursuing studies on the teaching of creative writing to learn abcut relevant research studies and teaching trends. The entries are divided into four categories: theory (the value of Creative writing, teacher- and classroom-related factors, and research findings);yoractice (teaching the writing process, teaching poetry writing, teaching fiction aid drama writing, and materials for student-use-H--results (respondineto student- work and publishing student work); and special resources (anthologies of student work, magazines that publish student work, writing contests, and other resources).
    [Show full text]
  • The Revival of Local Fairy Tales for Children Education
    ISSN 1799-2591 Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 7, No. 5, pp. 336-344, May 2017 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0705.02 The Revival of Local Fairy Tales for Children Education Fathu Rahman Department of English Language Studies, Literature Hasanuddin University, Indonesia Abstract—This study explored the function of fairy tales as a means of entertainment and education for children. Fairy tales in children's literature have gradually shifted from an oral storytelling tradition to a mass media product. The role of the mother as the first and foremost teacher of her children is increasingly challenged in modern education. From pre-school age up to junior high school level, a child needs special attention from his or her parents, especially the mother. From the age of three until a child enters primary school, the parents, especially the mother, play a strategic role in fostering various aspects of development language, psychology and character. One way in which this takes place is through storytelling, however unfortunately children's literature in the form of local fairy tales often no longer has a place in the home or the kindergarten. This case study in South Sulawesi, Indonesia explored the causes behind this change. Data were gathered through interviews and questionnaires. A simple statistical method was used to analyse the data. The results show that telling fairy tales to children is still relevant and can help to instil character values in young children. Index Terms—fairy tales, children’s literature, cyber literature, moral value I. INTRODUCTION Modern children’s literature includes short stories, picture books, comics, magazines, cartoons, and poetry that can potentially be enjoyed by most children.
    [Show full text]
  • Spreading the Dhamma: Writing, Orality, And
    BUDDHISM / SOUTHEAST ASIA VEIDLINGER (Continued from front flap) by forest-dwelling monastic orders in- “There is really nothing like this book. It addresses issues of current How did early Buddhists actually troduced from Sri Lanka in the develop- interest in Buddhist and cultural studies such as textual community, SPREADING encounter the seminal texts of their ment of Lan Na’s written Pali heritage. It literary and material culture, and the relationship between oral religion? What were the attitudes held SPREADING also considers the rivalry between those and written texts. It also brings to scholarly and public attention —— —— by monks and laypeople toward the monks who wished to preserve the older a period and area of the world that has been understudied and is THE written and oral Pali traditions? In this oral tradition and monks, rulers, and deserving of more attention.” pioneering work, Daniel Veidlinger laypeople who supported the expansion explores these questions in the context of the new medium of writing. DONALD K. SWEARER, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University of the northern Thai kingdom of Lan DHAMMA Na. Drawing on a vast array of sources, Throughout the book, Veidlinger empha- including indigenous chronicles, reports sizes the influence of changing modes of “Spreading the Dhamma is an ambitious and stimulating contribution by foreign visitors, inscriptions, and communication on social and intellectual to the study of Buddhist textual practices in southern Asia. It Writing, Orality, and Textual palm-leaf manuscripts, he traces the role life. The medium, he argues, is deeply in- should provoke further comparative research on the history of of written Buddhist texts in the predomi- volved in the assimilation of the content, writing technologies and attitudes towards writing within the Transmission in Buddhist nantly oral milieu of northern Thailand and therefore the vessels by which texts from the fifteenth to the nineteenth Pali-using Buddhist world.” have been transmitted in the Buddhist Northern Thailand centuries.
    [Show full text]
  • ON the BORDERS of ORAL and WRITTEN ART Carl
    ON THE BORDERS OF ORAL AND WRITTEN ART Carl Lindahl Indiana University "Folklore and literaturen--the phrase links two fields of study, suggesting that they are similar enough to be meaningfully compared. Specialists in each field, however, tend to view the other with ignorance ar;d suspicion; as a result, "Studies" of folklore and literature more often resemble warfare than scholarship. The time has come to call a truce and seek out the reasons for the war. Even at the level of nomenclature a basic con- fusion exists. Both "folklore" and "literature" are vague terms which can be applied too broadly to allow for a useful comparison. "Folklore" denotes traditional forms of entertainment, such as ballads and folktales, but also includes unofficial customs, survival techniques, and beliefs current in any culture. "Literature" designates not only written art, but also anything that is written. Here I will set strict limits on both terms: this study deals exclusively with the artistic uses of folklore and literature. My purpose is to redefine the boundaries between oral and written narrative art. The problem of boundaries cuts far deeper than any dispute over the choice and meaning of a few key words. Folklorists and literary critics must share an equal measure of blame for the situation as it now stands, for as much as they have tried to establish oral entertainment as a category of art, both groups continue to approach the folktale, the ballad, and the oral epic as if these genres were distinctly different from art. In recent years this situation has grown dangerous: critics have paid lip service to the idea that oral and written art operate according to similar principles.
    [Show full text]
  • Exploring Modernity in African Orature: the Bena Case Study
    Exploring Modernity in African Orature: The Bena Case Study Der Fakultät für Geschichte, Kunst- und Orientwissenschaften der Universität Leipzig eingereichte D I S S E R T A T I O N zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades DOCTOR PHILOSOPHIAE (Dr. phil.) vorgelegt von Angelus Jacob Mnenuka geboren am 03. Juni 1978 in Morogoro, Tansania Leipzig, den 06. November 2017 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I officially began working on this PhD project on 1st April 2014. This dissertation appears to be accomplished by me alone. But the fact is, there is a very long list of people and institutions ‘behind the scene’ who have contributed to this thesis. This section is fully dedicated to these kinds of people. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude towards all of them. However, it would look terribly awkward if one of the following names of people and institutions would not have appeared on this page. I am grateful to the following institutions: The Republic United of Tanzania through The Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) and Higher Education Students' Loans Board (HESLB) on the one hand, and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) on the other for awarding me the scholarship that enabled me to study for a PhD at the University of Leipzig, Germany. I would also express my sincere thanks to my employer, the University of Dar es Salaam for granting me a four-year study leave. And finally, but not least, is the Institute of African Studies (Afrikanistik) of the University of Leipzig (Universität Leipzig) in which I spent three years and seven months doing this research.
    [Show full text]