CONTACT BETWEEN ENGLISH AND AFRICAN ORAL TRADITIONS: INTERFACING WARRING IDENTITIES; THE CASE OF ZIMBABWE

Abstract

This article discusses the complexities arising from the inevitable contact between English and African oral traditions. African oral traditions are grounded in the principles of kindness, support, and reciprocity. Contact between English and African orature is a complex phenomenon that was set in motion by the educational and religious systems imposed on the African through colonialism. As oral traditions were translated from African indigenous languages to English, a hybrid arose; this was something familiar but new. Using Bakhtin’s (1981) dialogic theory which perceives all discourse as having a dialogic orientation, and that works of art are not complete in themselves but are responses to other works and traditions situated within a current of intersecting dialogues, this article argues that the contact between English and African oral traditions is an act of entering into dialogue with warring cultures, ideologies and traditions. The article demonstrates how the contact between English and African oral traditions can account for on the one hand, the preservation of African orature and culture, and, on the other hand, their resultant obliteration. The article proposes that to avoid retrogression, the same education system that was used to disrobe Africans of their identity can successfully be used to promote the African renaissance by making inroads into cultural awareness and re-cultivation of indigenous pride. Thus African institutions and universities in particular, must play a leading role in this cultural renaissance if they are to be distinctly African.

Key words: Contact, orature, English, indigenous language, dialogic interface