Praising the graduates: the repeated phrase in Xhosa oral poetry

Abstract

This contribution deals with a number of praise poems performed at UWC graduation ceremonies by Zolani Mkiva. The data, to some extent, could be considered as unique, in that 6 performances were rendered over g days. Because only one single poet had been involved, and because the context within which every performance took place basically remained unchanged, the situation raises questions around the compositional strategies of the poet. It stands to reason that, given the circumstances, the poet might opt for using some phrases or expressions in more than one poem. This in turn recalls the well known argument around improvisation vs memorisation.