The Caribbean Oral Tradition Literature, Performance, and Practice
The book uses an innovative prism of interorality that powerfully reevaluates Caribbean orality and innovatively casts light on its overlooked and fundamental epistemological contribution into the formation of Caribbean philosophy. It defines the innovati
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Edited by
Hanétha Vété-Congolo
The Caribbean Oral Tradition
Hanétha Vété-Congolo Editor
The Caribbean Oral Tradition Literature, Performance, and Practice
Editor Hanétha Vété-Congolo Bowdoin College Brunswick, USA
ISBN 978-3-319-32087-8 ISBN 978-3-319-32088-5 DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-32088-5
(eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016956109 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover illustration: © Palimpseste, images-matières» by Valérie John, technique mixte, papiers tissés, feuille d›or, pigment indigo, images en mouvement (300cmx250cm) Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland
FOREWORD
In his landmark film, Sankofa, acclaimed Ethiopian-American filmmaker, Haile Gerima provides a vivid visual representation of the power of storytelling and memory in the traumatic experience of millions of Africandescended people who suffered Atlantic slavery. Gerima’s jarring film opens with a declaration: “spirit of the dead, rise up and claim your story.” Beyond the graphic depiction of enslavement, Gerima skillfully deployed various storytelling sessions by the matriarch, Nunu, to illustrate the essence of African oral tradition by traveling back in time to recover the moral authority of the enslaved, despite dehumanization and brutality. Evoking the spirits of the ancestors, Nunu claims in one of her stories that “we could fly anywhere and this flesh is only what is stopping us.” Similarly, in many West African communities, storytelling has remained a daily routine of relating the past to the present, encoding universal moral truths for specific local contexts. In my own childhood experience in the great Yoruba city of Ibadan in the 1960s and 1970s, the moment of itan (story-telling session) was a time when children are acculturated in the deep values of their communities through th
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