Izibongo is a genre of oral literature among various Bantu peoples of Southern Africa, including the Zulu people[ and the Xhosa people.][
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Subject matter
Noleen Turner distinguished four different categories: the praise of ordinary people ( izibongo zabantu kumbe izihasho), of inanimate things ( izibongo zezinto ezingaphili); of kings, and of great people ( nezibongo zamakhosi/izibongo zabantu abakhulu abagqamile); and of clans ( izithakazelo kanye nezibongo).[
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Somadoda Fikeni points out that regarding izibongo as pertaining only to famous people (a Eurocentric paradigm) discredits common people, women, young people—Fineki argues that izibongo is a central element in the life of the people, and that while not everyone can have an " imbongi-public poet", everyone practices izibongo one way or another, since " izibongo form a collective memory, conscience and soul of an African society, and they are spiritually-centered oral narratives which are repositories of Indigenous wisdom". Izibongo, according to Fikeni, express both a oneness with the universe and a collective memory, and an individuality rooted in history.[ Jeff Opland also stated that earlier studies (into the 1970s) of Bantu poetry tended to focus on "the poetry of chiefs and prominent people", though he recognized a number of insightful studies on poetry by women, for instance, starting in the 1970s.]
See also
