Aspects of oral art and the genesis of Southern-Sotho literature: 1833–1863

Abstract

With interest in the literary history of Southern Africa in an upward phase at the moment, it is being realized more and more that adequate source studies, especially on the early days of the literatures, are necessary. The development of first sources may thus contribute to explaining some of the circumstances in which the literatures began, the course(s) they took, and also to indicating which facets of the oral legacy served as the fountain-head of the new era. In this article the very first sources on the literature in Southern Sotho, as well as the first texts, are discussed in terms of their (sometimes paradoxical) significance to the history of the literature.