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A master storyteller of the Xhosa people of South Africa, Nongenile Masithathu Zenani gives us an unprecedented view of an oral society from within. Twenty-four of her complex and beautiful tales about birth, puberty, marriage, and work, as told to the renowned collector of African oral tradition, Harold Scheub, are gathered here. Accompanying the stories are Zenani’s detailed commentaries and analyses and Scheub’s striking photographs of her in performance. The combination of these historical and cultural observations with a richly symbolic collection of tales from a single traditional storyteller make The World and the Word a remarkable document.
“The storyteller’s materials are simple,” Zenani told Scheub, “the world, and the word.” She presents to us the entire world of the Xhosa people, how they first came to be, the origins of their customs, how they order their world and deal with transgressors, how they manage all of life’s transitions from birth to death. She depicts both the world as it exists and as it is shaped in the words of the storyteller. Inheriting tales from the Xhosa tradition, Zenani has transformed them into imaginative new stories marked by her own artistry.
Scheub’s introduction to The World and the Word discusses Xhosa oral tradition and Zenani’s particular characteristics as an artist within that tradition; Zenani’s personal history and her work as both a storyteller and a healer; and Scheub’s friendship with her and his role in recording her legacy.
| Illustrations | ||
| Preface | ||
| Introduction | 3 | |
| The Art of the Storyteller | 7 | |
| Prologue - Origins | 9 | |
| Pt. 1 | Birth | |
| Introduction: Masithathu Zenani on Storytelling | 19 | |
| Commentaries | ||
| The Start Is a Man, and a Man Takes a Wife | 21 | |
| Why Did the Child Not Drink Milk from Its Mother? | 22 | |
| The Recognition of the Child | 23 | |
| Tales | ||
| 1 | The Frog and the Child without Limbs | 27 |
| 2 | Mbulukazi the Raven Wife | 41 |
| 3 | A Father Cuts Off His Daughter's Arms | 61 |
| Pt. 2 | Puberty | |
| Introduction: Masithathtu Zenani on Storytelling | 81 | |
| Commentaries | ||
| Time Passes, the Baby Grows | 88 | |
| The Gates of Childhood | 88 | |
| The Awakening of the Child | 91 | |
| The Dance for Boys | 92 | |
| Requesting an Older Boys' Dance | 93 | |
| After the Dance: Stick-fighting | 96 | |
| A Deeper Dimension to the Sport | 100 | |
| Mondaying | 105 | |
| I Want You to Become a Man | 105 | |
| The Initiates' Dance | 110 | |
| Graduation | 110 | |
| The Young Men Dance | 112 | |
| Xhosa Custom Requires Traditional Responses | 117 | |
| Tales | ||
| 4 | The Boy and the Lizard | 123 |
| 5 | The Lost Child | 135 |
| 6 | The Pregnant Boy | 142 |
| Companion Tale: A Woman Behaves Like a Man | 152 | |
| 7 | Malejese, Son of a King | 159 |
| 8 | The Circumcised Baboon | 173 |
| 9 | A Girl Is Kidnapped | 178 |
| 10 | The Two Nieces | 201 |
| 11 | A Girl Cuts Off a Man's Ear | 213 |
| 12 | Sikhuluma, The Boy Who Did Not Speak | 222 |
| 13 | The Boy Who Did Not Want His Sister to Marry | 251 |
| 14 | A Court Trial | 260 |
| Pt. 3 | Marriage | |
| Introduction: Masithathu Zenami on Storytelling | 269 | |
| Commentaries | ||
| Marriage in the Early Times | 272 | |
| Nongenile Masithathu Zenani Gets Married | 283 | |
| A Mother Who Had No Son | 300 | |
| Tales | ||
| 15 | A Poor Girl Marries a King | 325 |
| 16 | The Baboon's Wedding | 335 |
| 17 | Hamiose, The Wife Who Was Created from a Tree | 348 |
| 18 | The Man Who Beat His Wife | 363 |
| Pt. 4 | Maturity | |
| Introduction: Masithathu Zenani on Storytelling | 373 | |
| Commentaries | ||
| Setting Up the Homestead | 376 | |
| Woman's Work | 378 | |
| Man's Work | 380 | |
| Working in the Field | 381 | |
| The Rite of the Site | 384 | |
| Bringing Up the Children | 385 | |
| Professions: Medicine | 386 | |
| The Institution of Medicine Gradually Evolved | 393 | |
| Masithathu Zenani Becomes a Doctor | 394 | |
| A New Kind of Doctor | 400 | |
| Tales | ||
| 19 | The Jealous Co-wife | 402 |
| 20 | The Child with the Star on His Forehead | 409 |
| 21 | A Man Hides Food from His Family | 417 |
| 22 | Nomanaso | 438 |
| 23 | The Tree That Could Not Be Grasped | 459 |
| 24 | The Barren Woman | 473 |
| Epilogue - Destiny | ||
| The End of the Affair | 482 | |
| Appendix | ||
| The Pregnant Boy | 489 | |
| The Broom | 490 | |
| Beer Making | 496 |
Overview
A master storyteller of the Xhosa people of South Africa, Nongenile Masithathu Zenani gives us an unprecedented view of an oral society from within. Twenty-four of her complex and beautiful tales about birth, puberty, marriage, and work, as told to the renowned collector of African oral tradition, Harold Scheub, are gathered here. Accompanying the stories are Zenani’s detailed commentaries and analyses and Scheub’s striking photographs of her in performance. The combination of these historical and cultural ...