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  1. Home
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  3. Oral Poetry and Somali Nationalism
  • Cited by 63
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
May 2010
Print publication year:
1982
Online ISBN:
9780511735370
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511735370
Subjects:
Area Studies, African Studies, History, African History, Twentieth Century Regional History
Series:
African Studies (32)
Information

Book description

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.

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