Narrow your search

Library

KU Leuven (1)

UGent (1)

ULiège (1)


Resource type

book (1)


Language

English (1)


Year
From To Submit

1982 (1)

Listing 1 - 1 of 1
Sort by

Book
Oral poetry and Somali nationalism : the case of Sayyid Maḥammad ʻAbdille Ḥasan
Author:
ISBN: 0511735375 0521238331 0521104572 051186700X Year: 1982 Volume: 32 Publisher: Cambridge : Cambridge University Press,

Loading...
Export citation

Choose an application

Bookmark

Abstract

This book explores the influence of oral poetry on Somali politics. By reconstructing the history of the Somali nationalist resistance movement, mainly through the use of political oratory in verse form by its leader, Sayyid Mahammad 'Abdille Hasan', the 'Mad Mullah' of British history, Said Samater shows how an indigenous resource can be harnessed in a non-literate society, not only as a medium of mass communication but also as a tool for acquiring political power. He traces the intimate correlation between language, politics and oral poetry and seeks to suggest to students of African societies ways of examining indigenous forms of communication used by traditional African creators of large-scale organisations in the absence of writing, to influence public opinion. The book is an important contribution to the history of the Horn of Africa and its new material on the role of oral literature in a non-literate society will interest linguists, sociologists and anthropologists, as well as students of folklore and comparative literature.

Listing 1 - 1 of 1
Sort by