{{Short description|Genre of oral poetry in Bantu language}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''Izibongo''' is a genre of oral literature among various Bantu peoples of Southern Africa, including the Zulu<ref name=turner/> and the Xhosa.<ref name=fikeni>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tyyYB-yzNlQC&pg=PA230 |title=Indigenous Peoples' Wisdom and Power: Affirming Our Knowledge Through Narratives |editor1-first=Julian |editor1-last=Kunnie |editor2-first=Nomalungelo Ivy |editor2-last=Goduka |publisher=Ashgate |year=2006 |chapter=The Nature and Function of Izibong-Panegyric Legends: The Case of the Xhosa People of South Africa |first=Somadoda |last=Fikeni |pages=225–45 |isbn=9780754615972 }}</ref> While it is often considered to be poetry of praise, Jeff Opland and others consider the term "praise" (for "bonga") to be too limiting, since it can contain criticism as well.<ref name=opland/>
==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'').<ref name=turner>{{cite journal |title=A brief overview of Zulu oral traditions |journal=Alternation |volume=1 |issue=1 |year=1994 |pages=58–67 |last=Turner |first=Noleen |url=http://alternation.ukzn.ac.za/Files/docs/01.1/07%20Tur.pdf |accessdate=10 August 2020 |archive-date=28 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210428165242/http://alternation.ukzn.ac.za/Files/docs/01.1/07%20Tur.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Opland recognized three topics: people, animals, and objects, and noted that ''izibongo'' "is a poetry rooted, in subject and imagery, in the concrete", and that it does not treat landscape or emotion "in the manner of romantic or lyric poetry".<ref name=opland/>
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.<ref name=fikeni/> 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.<ref name=opland>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3M48AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA49 |title=Xhosa Oral Poetry: Aspects of a Black South African Tradition |series=Cambridge Studies in Oral and Literate Culture |first=Jeff |last=Opland |publisher=Cambridge UP |year=1983 |isbn=9780521241137}}</ref>
==See also== *Isiduko, Xhosa clan names *Oríkì, a similar concept amongst the Yoruba of West Africa
==References== {{reflist}}
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Category:Zulu literature Category:Zulu words and phrases Category:Poetic forms
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