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
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: Africa, originated there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: West Africa, originated there.
Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica
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