War and Remembrance: The Power of Oral Poetry and the Politics of Hananwa Identity

Abstract

The important role of oral tradition (folklore) in the reconstruction of the historical and cultural life of non-literate societies demands an interdisciplinary approach. Folklorists and scholars in disciplines such as anthropology, ethnography, history and linguistics have recognized the necessity of following such an approach in order to arrive at an accurate interpretation and understanding of oral texts. In a society riven by racial bigotry and ethnic animosity, the various black communities of South Africa have had very little opportunity to produce their own history and to create and affirm their own identity. The interpretation undertaken here of the war praise poem in honour of Ratshatsha, the chief who reigned over the Hananwa, a Northern Sotho-speaking people living at Blouberg in the Northern Province of South Africa from 1879 to 1939, offers an interdisciplinary analysis which includes the performer, family members and local inhabitants as active participants in the re-creation of their own past. Ratshatsha's praise poem is a vital comment on Hananwa society and, as such, it has often been adapted to new situations. It must therefore be viewed as a performance in context, and not as a static creation of oral art. The usefulness of oral tradition and the practice of memory gave us as researchers the opportunity to produce a printed account of the Hananwa's history that could never have been done by researchers relying on archives and libraries. This approach aided us in our goal of transcending the boundaries of a single discipline in order to convey a holistic picture of the Hananwa through the complex composition of an oral text.