This dissertation focuses on the migrant performance genre isicathamiya, a genre which was popular amongst migrant workers in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng in the nineteen thirties and forties. It explores contemporary isicathamiya and asks whether there have been paradigmatic shifts in its content in post-apartheid South African society. By way of introduction, the origins and development as well as some of the themes and features of isicathamiya are highlighted. Hereafter scholarly accounts of migrant performance genres are discussed in conjunction with the cultural re-orientation of migrants in urban centers. The introduction is intended to contextualise the genre by alluding to the politics and aesthetics of isicathamiya performances. Leading on from the introduction, the first chapter of this body of research is a reflection upon the characteristics of oral literature; from the point of view of a literary scholar, I also discuss the problems of interpretation I experienced in this study of mediated isicathamiya lyrics. I propose that isicathamiya performances and texts are elements of oral literature and begin to define them as such. My intention in chapter two is to explore how local performances have influenced global culture. I ask if oral literature from South Africa has contributed to the global market. I ask what Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the internationally acclaimed isicathamiya choir, has invested in "First World culture" and suggest that there is in existence a transcultural flow of energy between the "so-called centre" and "so-called periphery". In chapter three I suggest that the local and global are in a state of dialogue. I hope to establish a dialogue between local isicathamiya choirs and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. In essence, Ladysmith Black Mambazo has exported a musical form that has its foundations in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. This chapter takes readers back to the source of the genre. I take into consideration Veit Erimann's scholarly studies of isicathamiya in Nightsong: Performance, Power and Practice in South Africa. Focus falls upon the paradigm of rural/ urban migration in isicathamiya song and the importance of "home" in sustaining migrants in the city. The notion of "homeliness" as a trope in isicathamiya performances is discussed. By extension, in chapter four, I ask whether the notion of "home" emphasized by Veit Erlmann is of significance in contemporary isicathamiya performance. Consequently, I adopt a comparative approach and set out to identify the changes and continuities in contemporary isicathamiya performances in response to transformations within postapartheid society. I ask why isicathamiya is significant in post-apartheid South African society. What is its importance for personal and collective identity? What is being articulated within contemporary performances? Does isicathamiya provide a cultural space, a forum in which public debate (regarding leaders, policies and concerns) can be staged? Most importantly, is the thematic paradigm between the rural and urban world still visible in contemporary isicathamiya? Is contemporary isicathamiya still grounded on the notion of "homeliness", or have new thematic paradigms emerged in contemporary isicathamiya performances? I propose that South Africa in the present, is itself the site of multiple cultures and fragmented histories. The country and its people are searching for a new unitary meaning in the post-apartheid era. My argument is that isicathamiya texts are elements of postcolonial and post-apartheid literature. I suggest that language, through isicathamiya performance, can show a way back into reinterpreting the past and stitching together a different present. Isicathamiya texts give hints of journeys and point to identities, shared histories and cultural landscapes. Isicathamiya makes possible the sharing of knowledge and knowledge systems, and is an opportunity to hear un-erased histories and un-silenced voices. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.

A vigorous oral tradition has existed throughout South African history, and in many ways represents our truly original contribution to world literature. Despite this, oral literature is largely absent from accounts of literary history in this country. While the particular oppressions of South African political life have contributed to the exclusion of oral forms, the suppression of the oral in favour of the printed text is a feature of literary studies worldwide, and appears to be related to the critical practices that have been dominant in universities and schools for most of this century. In this study I consider ways of recovering oral forms for literary debate, and offer what I consider to be more appropriate strategies of 'reading'. My aim is to re-establish a line of continuity in South African poetry and performance from the songs and stories of the Bushmen, through the praise poems of the African chiefdoms, to the development of Christianised oral forms, the adaptation of the oral tradition in 'Soweto' poetry of the 1970s, and the performance of poems on political platforms in the 1980s. Recovering oral poetry and performance genres for literary debate requires the development of an appropriate critical methodology. Through a consideration of advances in the study of orality, I aim to suggest ways of reading which grant credence to the specific strategies and performative energies of oral texts while locating the texts in the spaces and constrictions of their societies. A great many oral texts from the past survive only in printed, translated forms, however, and a key aspect of such a critical project is how - while acknowledging the particular difficulties involved - one 'uses' highly mediated and artificially stabilised print versions to suggest something of the dynamic nature of oral performance in South African historical and social life. This thesis also considers how texts address us across historical distances. I argue for maintaining a dialectic between the 'past significance' and 'present meaning' of the poems, songs and stories: for allowing the past to shape our reading while we remain aware that our recuperation of history is inevitably directed by present needs and ideologies. These ideas are explored through five chapters which consider, respectively, the songs and stories of the nineteenth-century /Xam Bushmen, the izibongo of Shaka, the hymns of the Messianic Zulu evangelist Isaiah Shembe, Ingoapele Madingoane's epic 'Soweto' poem "black trial", and the performance poetry of Mzwakhe Mbuli and Alfred Qabula in the 1980s. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1995.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2000.

The tribal life and the oral traditions of black South Africans have been marginalized. The consequence of the western civilization and the apartheid regime forced people to do away from their traditional heritage and culture; they adopted the western way of life. They buried their oral tradition and only a little has survived. To save the dying culture of the art of the oral tradition we need to go out and record and document the surviving oral tradition as soon as possible. Since the art of the oral tradition is an art form conducted by an artist, it may be possible to tell the ibali likaNongqawuse by means of visual imagery. Visual images can be read and be understood easily by the public because visual forms, sings, images can make up a language for both the literate as well as the illiterate.

This study is on standard isiXhosa in a multilingual classroom and includes an interpretation of both urban and rurual learners’ literary texts. An attempt is made to examine a selection of isiXhosa texts in order to interprete the state of affairs of the isiXhosa language in the 21st century. Organization of the study This dissertation was organized in the following manner: Chapter one includes an introduction to the study, its aims and objectives as well as the research methodology. Since the isiXhosa language is the focal point of the study, it is discussed in some depth. In chapter two, the researcher concentrates on the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) "Imibono yethu". Imibono yethu is an anthology of learners' writings. The learners were invited to enter a competition by using various genres, e.g. short stories, poems, one-act dramas, rap songs, kwaito, essays, and melodic poems. The researcher wanted the learners to use whatever genre inspires them, to put it colloquially, "what turns them on!" Any aspect of the urban lifestyle could be explored within the theme of each entry and fell under the following headings: • Standard language. • Standard isiXhosa. Chapter three investigates non-standard language varieties with special reference to isiXhosa and the language policy of South Africa. In this chapter, a comparison was drawn between non-standard language and standard language. vi In chapter four, the researcher discusses the overall findings of the competition, comparing the results emanating from the Eastern Cape and Gauteng. Chapter five deals with achievement of the objectives and highlights of the research. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)

This study is on standard isiXhosa in a multilingual classroom and includes an interpretation of both urban and rurual learners’ literary texts. An attempt is made to examine a selection of isiXhosa texts in order to interprete the state of affairs of the isiXhosa language in the 21st century. Organization of the study This dissertation was organized in the following manner: Chapter one includes an introduction to the study, its aims and objectives as well as the research methodology. Since the isiXhosa language is the focal point of the study, it is discussed in some depth. In chapter two, the researcher concentrates on the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) "Imibono yethu". Imibono yethu is an anthology of learners' writings. The learners were invited to enter a competition by using various genres, e.g. short stories, poems, one-act dramas, rap songs, kwaito, essays, and melodic poems. The researcher wanted the learners to use whatever genre inspires them, to put it colloquially, "what turns them on!" Any aspect of the urban lifestyle could be explored within the theme of each entry and fell under the following headings: • Standard language. • Standard isiXhosa. Chapter three investigates non-standard language varieties with special reference to isiXhosa and the language policy of South Africa. In this chapter, a comparison was drawn between non-standard language and standard language. vi In chapter four, the researcher discusses the overall findings of the competition, comparing the results emanating from the Eastern Cape and Gauteng. Chapter five deals with achievement of the objectives and highlights of the research. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)

MA (Sociology) / Department of Sociology / The study aimed to explore on the oral narratives of selected female migrants in South Africa. It was a case study of Thohoyandou in the Limpopo Province. Female migrants are faced with integration challenges such as political and socio-economic challenges. The study focused on reflecting on stories of selected female migrants who reside in Thohoyandou. The study was qualitative in nature and utilised a qualitative exploratory research design because it was aimed at exploring perceptions on oral narratives of selected female migrants. The researcher made use of non-probability sampling in the form of purposive sampling method and snowball. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews. Data was then sorted, coded, organised and indexed in a manner that made it easier for the researcher to interpret, analyse and present in content analysis. Text was summarised by checking key themes, phrases or passages that were used in a more detailed analysis. The process was guided by the original aim of the study. Findings of the study postulated that most female migrants came for economic reasons and discrimination is perceived to be an important barrier to integration. Other significant integration barriers include linguistic, educational, and institutional factors. Internal factors (social, cultural, and religious norms, immigrants' own opinions about themselves, lack of motivation and intergenerational mobility) are also serious barriers to integration.

The basic aim of this study is to investigate the nature of the narrative, concerning itself with the structures inherent in a system of signs which reveals the communicative function of literature. The general aim is to interpret the meaning of the narrative against the cultural background. The study makes a synthesis of formalist and structuralist points of view on the relations between story and discourse. A comparison of the oral and written narratives reveals that the discourse of the latter displays more artistry than that of the former. An examjnation of the problems of theme selection and development in the Northern Sotho prose narrative, from the point of view of African literature, is made. This reveals that the South African censorship laws have caused the emergence of sophisticated writers with a highly developed artistic way of portraying the South African situation sensitively by making it speak for itself. The study also examines some aspects of character in the narrative, analyzing the actions of characters in the story rather than psychological essences about them, and showing how these characters help the reader to understand the narrator's moral vision of the world. A comparison of the narrative techniques in the oral and the written narrative shows that in the former, the narrator is limited by tradition to the actions and the events that can be seen or heard, while the narrator in the latter can even describe what his characters are thinking or feeling. The study finally examines the relationship between symbolism and culture in the Northern Sotho narrative to reveal the general African philosophy in which -life is perceived as a perpetual journey undertaken by the hero from the natural to the non-natural world, whence he returns to the original world after experiencing moral lassitude and frustration. In the conclusion it is observed that both the oral and the written narratives deal with the intricacies of life as series of patterns and developments. The functional nature of the traditional African aesthetics reflected in the narratives prescribes the study of their meaning against the African cultural background. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

Preservationist conservation created a legacy of national parks and protected areas that were surrounded by local people dispossessed of their land and denied the rights to use the resources they had previously relied upon. Although conservation is now shifting towards a more participatory approach, research gaps still exist in determining the meaning of 'the environment' and the role of local means of conservation in rural communities in South Africa. This study focused on children's cultural environmental narratives from two rural villages in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Children from grades 4, 7 and 10 were involved in the study, and adult family members, local experts and village elders were included in the study to allow for comparison between children's and adult's narratives and to realise what Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) was being passed on. This thesis considers children's use of the environment for play and their sense of place as key methods in ascertaining children's environmental narratives and perceptions. At both field sites, local experts and community elders possessed a wealth of cultural environmental narratives, but these narratives were not necessarily being passed on. Changing household structures and other socio-economic factors influence cultural environmental practices, which in turn have an impact on the cultural environmental narratives being passed down. In many cases, parents' safety fears strongly impacted upon children's access to the environment, resulting in gendered environmental knowledge. The study compared differing vegetation types and degrees of environmental access. The differing environments produced similar cultural environmental narratives, leading to new understandings in community environment relationships. Children living near the state administered forest had significantly less environmental knowledge, bringing about questions of sustainable bio-cultural diversity in the future. The recognition of cultural environmental values is especially important in the rural areas of South Africa, where unemployment and increased poverty levels have led to greater dependence on natural resources for social, economic and cultural purposes. It is proposed that local cultural environmental narratives and landscape perceptions be included into community conservation and environmental education policies and programmes to provide local solutions to the problem of biodiversity conservation in local contexts.

PhD (African Studies) / Centre for African Studies / African authors play a significant role in passing on African folklore. Their writing is often influenced by their lived experiences and the social context embedded within folklore. Folklore houses the cultural beliefs, customs and traditions of a society and is passed on from one generation to the next through oral and written literature. Many African authors’ works instil an appreciation of people’s African identity, customs and beliefs. The aim of this study was to explore the extent to which folklore had influenced the writings of four selected African authors: Chinua Achebe, a renowned author from Nigeria, Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʹo from Kenya, Es’kia Mphahlele and Andrew Nkadimeng, both from South Africa. These African authors, who chose to write their stories in English rather than in their African language, were influenced by the folklore they were exposed to in their upbringing. The objective of the study was to identify various aspects of folklore and demonstrate how folklore had remained entrenched in the writings of these African authors, despite the fact that they were telling their stories in the English language. The research was qualitative in nature and a hermeneutic research method was used to describe and interpret the meaning of texts as used by the authors and to explore the influence of folklore in the text. The study will be a useful resource for teachers in the Further Education and Training (FET) band in schools (grade 10 to 12) which includes folklore studies as part of its syllabus. Currently, folklore is studied in schools only in terms of Oral Literature. However, Oral Literature is just one aspect of folklore, as is discussed in this study. The study will also contribute towards efforts to re-establish Africans’ dignity and identity / NRF