Research ArticleOpen AccessGoogle Scholar indexed
<i>Kirari</i> as Autobiography in Hausa Praise Poetry
Department of English, Univerité Abdou Moumouni de Niamey, Niamey, Niger
- 1 Department of English, Univerité Abdou Moumouni de Niamey, Niamey, Niger
Advances in Literary Study·Volume 06 (2018)·Pages 120–134·Published 6 July 2018·DOI10.4236/als.2018.63010
Copy link · social · email
Abstract
This study shows that autobiography exists in oral civilizations by exploring Kirari in Hausa praise poetry. The study focuses on the forms of Kirari that clearly bring out the autobiographical elements that illustrate the autobiographer’s conscious awareness of the singularity of his or her life and achievements and the uniqueness of their identity among the members of their community and/or profession. These forms of Kirari are identified in excerpts from Hausa hunters’ heroic self-praise and from Bakandamiya by the singer Maman Shata Katsina.
KeywordsHausaOral Autobiography<i>Kirari</i>NigerNigeria
- Abrams, M. H. (1988). A Glossary of Literary Terms. Fifth Edition. New York: Holt, Reneheart and Winston, Inc.
- Alabi, A. (2007). I Am the Hunter Who Kills Elephants and Baboons: The Autobiographical Component of the Hunters’ Chant. Research in African Literatures, 38, 13-23. https://doi.org/10.2979/RAL.2007.38.3.13
- Anyindoho, K. (1986). Mythmaker and Mythbreaker: The Oral Poet as Earwitness. In E. Julien, M. Mortimer, & C. Schade (Eds.), African Literature in Its Social and Political Dimensions (pp. 5-14). Washington DC: African Literature Association and Three Continents Press, Inc.
- Baum, R. (2016). Self-Praise and Performance in the Heroic Praise-Epithets of Hunters in Hausaland. Journal of African Cultural Studies, Article ID: CJAC-2016-0002. http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cjac
- Braendlin, B. (1994). Who Speaks (for) Autobiography? Re-Evaluating the Boundaries of Autobiography: Theory, Practice, Pedagogy. CEA Critic, 57, 9-19.
- Bunza, A. M., & Noofal, M. A. (2013). Ruwan Bagaja in Perspectives: Eight Decades of a Hausa Masterpiece in Prose (1933-2013). Special Edition. Cairo: UNICAIRO/UMYUK.
- Furniss, G. (1996). Poetry, Prose and Popular Culture in Hausa. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
- Hunter, L., & Chaibou, E. O. (2001). Aspects of the Aesthetics of Hausa Verbal Art. Koln: Rüdiger Koppe Verlag.
- Knipp, T. R. (1986). Poetry as Autobiography: Society and Self in Three Modern West African Poets. In E. Julien, M. Mortimer, & C. Schade (Eds.), African Literature in Its Social and Political Dimensions (pp. 41-50). Washington DC: African Literature Association and Three Continents Press, Inc.
- Lappas, C. (1994). “The Way I Heard It Was…” Myth, Memory, and Autobiography in Storyteller and the Woman Warrior. Re-Evaluating the Boundaries of Autobiography: Theory, Practice, Pedagogy. CEA Critic, 57, 57-67.
- Mahamane, A. (2012). Violence et paix dans les louanges des dignitaires hausa du Katsina. Etudes Sahéliennes: Epopée et violence dans les traditions africaines et européennes. Numéro special. Niamey: Université Abdou Moumouni.
- Mode, M. A. (2015). Kirari (Epithet) as a Passing Device in Modern Hausa Prose from Northern Nigeria. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention, 4, 18-24.
- Oumarou, C. E. (1994). One Speaks, Another Writes: The Oral Autobiography of a Hausa Woman (1877-1951). Re-Evaluating the Boundaries of Autobiography: Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy. CEA Critic, 57, 57-67.