Form
The Praise Poem
Also Known As Known as izibongo in Zulu and oriki in Yoruba, among other regional names.
Narrative and Song Forms
An oral verse form found across many African literary traditions, most fully developed among the Zulu (izibongo) and Yoruba (oriki), composed to honor a chief, ancestor or notable individual through dense, allusive, often improvised praise-names and epithets recited by trained performers.
Facts
Place of OriginSouthern and West Africa, oral tradition of great age, especially developed among the Zulu and Yoruba. 1 StructureChains of dense, allusive praise-names and epithets, unrhymed, built for oral recitation and often composed or extended in performance rather than fixed in a single written text. 1 Notable ExampleThe izibongo praise poems of the Zulu king Shaka; Yoruba oriki performed for oba (rulers) and orisa (deities). 1 Connections
Associated With
Wole Soyinka, Authors Soyinka's poetry draws on the Yoruba oral praise-poem (oriki) tradition.
Form Of Genre
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica
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