Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-nmvwc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-04T04:24:04.516Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Riddles and the reconstruction of reality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Steve Chimombo
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

When David Livingstone, the missionary-explorer, pleaded in the Senate House in Cambridge on 4 December 1857:

I go back to Africa to try to make an open path for commerce and Christianity. Do you carry on the work which I have begun. I leave it with you. [Winspear, 1956: 11]

little did he realise that whereas his compatriots were busily engaged in commercial and evangelical enterprises the local folk artist in Central Africa was also constructing, refashioning or recreating riddles inspired by the white man, his culture and his other activities.

Résumé

Énigmes et la reconstitution de la réalité

Cet article examine l'emergence d'un certain nombre d'énigmes du Malawi (Chewa) qui semblent exister ou être reconstruites à partir d'anciennes contemporaines de l'avènement, de l'installation et des progrés de l'homme blanc dans le pays. Comme le démontre la discussion, la création ou la recréation de ces énigmes a dû se rattacher à la culture étrangère, son influence et sa pénétration dans la vie de la population locale et l'imagination des artistes populaires. En d'autres termes, si les énigmes sont construites à partir de la compréhension des gens de la réalité qui les entoure, aucune expression en dehors de leur expérience ne s'insérera dans leur folklore.

Type
Dreams and riddles
Information
Africa , Volume 57 , Issue 3 , July 1987 , pp. 297 - 320
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Beuchat, P. D. 1965. ‘Riddles in Bantu’, in Alan, Dundas (ed.), The Study of Folklore, 182–205. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Chakanza, E. T. 1950. ‘Nyasa folk songs’, African Affairs, 4, April, 158–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chimombo, Steve. 1981. ‘A Psycholinguistic Model of Riddle Construction and Comprehension’, unpublished.Google Scholar
Dzimphonje, W. N. 1976. ‘Letters to the editor’, Tikambe, supplement to Malawi News, 17 July, 2.Google Scholar
Gray, Ernest. 1939. ‘Some riddles of the Nyanja people’, Bantu Studies, December, 251–91.Google Scholar
Hamilton, R. A. 1954. ‘The route of Gaspar Bocarro from Tete to Kilwa in 1616’, Nyasaland Journal, 7, 2, July, 7–14.Google Scholar
Lewis, W. 1956. ‘Place names’, Nyasaland Journal, 9, 1, January, 70.Google Scholar
Mapanje, Jack A. C. 1975. ‘The Use of Traditional Literary Forms in modern Malawian Writing’, M.Phil, thesis, University of London.Google Scholar
Morrow, Seán. 1986. ‘“War came from the Boma”: Military and Police Disturbances in Blantyre, 1902’, paper presented to the Central African History Conference, Lusaka, Zambia, 4–5 April.Google Scholar
Mvula, E. S. T. 1976. ‘Introducing Malawian riddles’, supplement to Kalulu, 1, 1, 1–63.Google Scholar
Nurse, George T. 1964. ‘Popular songs and national identity in Malawi’, African Music, III, 3, 101–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nyasaland Protectorate. 1932. Annual Report of the Department of Education for the Year ended 31st December 1931. Zomba, Nyasaland: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Pretorius, J. L. 1948. ‘A short report of the literature situation in Nyasaland’, Books for Africa, 18, 3, July, 37–8.Google Scholar
Pretorius, J. L. 1957. ‘The story of the Dutch Reformed Church Mission’, Nyasaland Journal, 10, 1, January, 11–22.Google Scholar
Rangeley, W. H. J. 1950. ‘“Nyau” in Kotankote District: part two’, Nyasaland Journal, III, 2, July, 19–33.Google Scholar
Rangeley, W. H. J. 1954. ‘Early Blantyre’, Nyasaland Journal, 7, 1, January, 36–45.Google Scholar
Rangeley, W. H. J. 1958. ‘The origins of the principal street names of Blantyre and Limbe’, Nyasaland Journal, 11, 2, July, 41–54.Google Scholar
Rattray, R. Sutherland. 1969. Some Folklore Stories and Songs in Chinyanja (1907). New York: Negro Universities Press.Google Scholar
Sagawa, Jessie. 1983. ‘Some Malawian Jokes’, unpublished.Google Scholar
Shepperson, George. 1960. ‘The military history of British Central Africa’, Rhodes-Livingstone Journal, 26, 23–33.Google Scholar
Steere, Edward. 1871. Collections for a Handbook of the Yao Language. London: S.P.C.K.Google Scholar
Thomson, T. D. 1953. ‘Place names in Nyasaland’, Nyasaland Journal, 6, 1, January, 64–6.Google Scholar
Twynam, C. D. 1948. ‘Nyasaland mails and stamps’, Nyasaland Journal, 1, 1, January, 11–22.Google Scholar
Twynam, C. D. 1954. ‘Incidents in the posts of Nyasaland’, Nyasaland Journal, 7, 7, January, 46–50.Google Scholar
Winspear, Frank. 1956. ‘A short history of the Universities Mission to Central Africa’, Nyasaland Journal, 9, 1, January, 11–50.Google Scholar
Young, Cullen. 1953. ‘Place names in Nyasaland’, Nyasaland Journal, 6, 2, July, 35–6.Google Scholar