Book contents
- Decolonizing African Knowledge
- African Identities: Past and Present
- Decolonizing African Knowledge
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Language and Orthography
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Introduction
- Part II History, Fictions, and Factions
- 3 Narrative Politics and Cultural Ideologies
- 4 Memory, Magic, Myth, and Metaphor
- 5 A Poetological Narration of the Nation
- 6 A Poetological Narrative of the Self
- 7 Satire and Society
- 8 Narrative Politics and the Politics of Narrative
- Part III Visual Cultures
- Part IV Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - A Poetological Narration of the Nation
from Part II - History, Fictions, and Factions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 June 2022
- Decolonizing African Knowledge
- African Identities: Past and Present
- Decolonizing African Knowledge
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Language and Orthography
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Introduction
- Part II History, Fictions, and Factions
- 3 Narrative Politics and Cultural Ideologies
- 4 Memory, Magic, Myth, and Metaphor
- 5 A Poetological Narration of the Nation
- 6 A Poetological Narrative of the Self
- 7 Satire and Society
- 8 Narrative Politics and the Politics of Narrative
- Part III Visual Cultures
- Part IV Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter is basically a review of a collection of poems mirroring the Yoruba cultural ethos, drawn from Etches on Fresh Waters, Scoundrels of Deferral, A Mouth Sweeter than Salt, and Counting the Tiger’s Teeth. Believing the core of a nation to be its people, the poetry collections seek to present a narration of the nation through poems about the cultural practices, values, and beliefs of the people. Clearly, the chapter depicts poetry as a creative mode of expression, performing a “dialectic function of narrating a group’s culture,” and as a means of “documenting” and “teaching” culture. The chapter launches into the cultural significance of poetry and how poetry reflects the past and present cultural realities of the Yoruba people especially. The cultural ethos include salutations to the revered, celebration of ethnic identity, sermons on moderation, unrestrained freedom, and hospitality, amongst others, while some were used to show women’s sociocultural position.
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- Information
- Decolonizing African KnowledgeAutoethnography and African Epistemologies, pp. 99 - 124Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022