The dynamic and transformational nature of praising in contemporary Zulu society

Abstract

This paper focuses on three areas of contemporary praising: in the political sphere, in the form of private individual praises and thirdly as it exists in the lyrics of contemporary Maskandi music. It traces the fluidity of this form of oral tradition which is able to change its focus in order to accommodate the changing needs of the people who are so inextricably linked with it. The forms of personal and political praise poetry under scrutiny here, are seen as an ongoing contemporary counterpart of traditional oral poetry, reflecting not only a change in their actual content, but also in the function and context in which this oral poetry is performed.