Africana Collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/10394/37532024-03-29T02:26:24Z2024-03-29T02:26:24ZVenda ngano narratives. Dialogues between past and presentKruger, JacoMavhetha, MathuvheloMasase, PfanananiMashau, TshNdou, TshilidziLe Roux, Inahttp://hdl.handle.net/10394/398242022-08-24T04:34:33Z2021-01-01T00:00:00ZVenda ngano narratives. Dialogues between past and present
Kruger, Jaco; Mavhetha, Mathuvhelo; Masase, Pfananani; Mashau, Tsh; Ndou, Tshilidzi; Le Roux, Ina
The annotated ngano song-story narratives in this book were collected in Niani, South Africa's Limpopo valley, from 2009 to 2016. Their discussion is situated at the intersection of history, ethnography, narratology and musicology.
Finnegan notes that the study of African oral narrative tends to focus on "animal tales and other light-hearted stories" rather than "more elaborate, lengthy, or serious" stories about human life. In any case, narratives are often represented as mere plot outlines, leaving readers with "No idea whatsoever" of any deeper significance they may harbour. In particular, "detailed studies of the literary and social significance of the various stories in any one society are notably lacking."
In South Africa, oral narratives of precolonial origin live on in popular printed media directed at the youth market. Often harvested from ethnographic sources that date back to the nineteenth century, their translations rarely attempt to account for original stylistic qualities. Furthermore, their intricate symbolism routinely remains unexcavated, and virtually nothing in known about their narrators. And so their worldmaking functions and aesthetics may go unnoticed, relegating them to innocuous children's stories.
2021-01-01T00:00:00ZVenda ḽashu : Tshivenda songs, musical games and song storiesKruger, Jacohttp://hdl.handle.net/10394/398232022-08-24T04:36:20Z2004-01-01T00:00:00ZVenda ḽashu : Tshivenda songs, musical games and song stories
Kruger, Jaco
The songs, musical games and song stories in this book originate from two sources. The first is a
collection of songs I accumulated from 1983-1994 among Tshivenda-speaking people living in
South Africa’s Limpopo Province. Children’s songs (nyimbo dza vhana) were not a primary objective
of my study of Venda music, and so my encounters with them mostly were marked by chance.
Perhaps my most memorable experience of children’s music-making occurred in the summer of
1988 when I was fishing in the Luvhuvhu River near the village of Tshiulungoma. I was joined by
a few young boys who expressed keen interest in my fishing tackle. They got bored when I was
unable to catch any fish, and started to shoot birds with their catapults. Their hunt took them into
some trees where their animated chatter turned into singing. Their clear voices rang out in the
warm, still afternoon. The song leader and chorus singers were sitting in different trees, and this
emphasised the antiphonal structure of their song. And so my encounters with children’s music not
only were serendipitous but also pleasant.
2004-01-01T00:00:00ZThe girls in the baobab : Venda stories from the Limpopo ValleyKruger, JacoMavhetha, MathuvheloMashau, Tshifhiwahttp://hdl.handle.net/10394/398222022-08-24T04:35:20Z2014-01-01T00:00:00ZThe girls in the baobab : Venda stories from the Limpopo Valley
Kruger, Jaco; Mavhetha, Mathuvhelo; Mashau, Tshifhiwa
The primary purpose of this collection of stories is the documenting of a waning oral narrative practice. Because the stories are integral to a culture-specific symbolic system, it is necessary that their meanings should be explained. These meanings, and the social conditions in which they are produced, are analysed in part I of this book. This discussion will appeal more to the specialist than general reader. the stories, as well as short life sketches of their narrators, appear in part IV, and they may be enjoyed without recourse to part I. Most of the stories are followed by annotations which refer the interested reader to explanations in part I. By necessity, there is a limited overlap between these annotations and sections of part I. Part II also is aimed at the specialist, and it introduces matters of style, performance and presentation, while part III offers instructions for those who would like to perform the stories and their sons. The firs edition of this book is aimed at English-speaking reader, and does not include the original Tshivenda versions of the stories. These versions appear in Part V of this second edition.
2014-01-01T00:00:00ZThe flamboyant rooster and other Tshivenda song storieshttp://hdl.handle.net/10394/391202022-08-23T07:03:51Z2007-01-01T00:00:00ZThe flamboyant rooster and other Tshivenda song stories
Le Roux, Ina; Kruger, Jaco
Ngano are song stories of precolonial origin told by the Tshivenda-speaking people of South Africa. There are various reasons why they deserve a larger audience. Like folklore elsewhere, they are ancient artistic maps of the human condition. Although by no means devoid of humour, they cannot be regarded as frivolous entertainment. They provide listeners with a privileged view of human relationships in an African society. Their characters are enmeshed in a complex web of conflict and interdependency. Class, patriarchy, seniority and physical power are some bases from which the world is controlled. Primordial desires and vested interests find easy prey in women, children and the underclasses. Overt violence takes the form of kidnapping, sexual assault and murder. Men typically turn into marauding animals who hunt their human victims. But there also are more subtle forms of violation, like rejection, jealousy and selfishness which often are driven by loneliness and insecurity. Although the persecuted appear helpless, they are not denied redemption. They find refuge within the community of the vulnerable, while their physical frailty belies a spirit of rebellion that enables them to escape and even undermine those who abuse them. And so mutually defining forms of power clash throughout, while resistance becomes contradictory: those that are sub-ordinate also may shift with ease into authoritarian roles. ... (Please refer to the attached full text for a detailed preface)
2007-01-01T00:00:00Z