The girls in the baobab : Venda stories from the Limpopo Valley

Abstract

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.