African Oral Literature as Sociopolitical Commentary: A Comparative IsiXhosa-Afrikaans Approach

Abstract

The history, identities, languages and cultures of amaXhosa, Khoikhoi and San communities are intimately connected and hybrid. This is carefully documented by Jeff Peires in his seminal work on the history of amaXhosa, The House of Phalo. Many of the descendants of these communities also contributed to the development of the Afrikaans language. The post-1980 consensus within Afrikaans historical linguistics is that the language developed as a result of intercultural contact—what is known as the interlanguage theory—according to which Afrikaans developed as a result of different peoples from different languages speaking a form of Dutch, and the linguistic stabilisation that ensued from the linguistic contact. This intercultural contact is noted by Hein Willemse. It therefore stands to reason that some of the oral literary genres told through isiXhosa and Afrikaans (and prior to that Khoikhoi and San languages and dialects) would have linkages and shared techniques. This article compares genres such as Afrikaans folktales and storytelling from the Northern Cape and Namibia with those of amaXhosa from the Eastern Cape region and elsewhere in relation to points of similarity, thematic commonalities and techniques. This debate will also be broadened to other genres such as comparative oral poetry. The analysis is supported theoretically by taking into account historical factors and multiculturalism, which contribute to the complex sociopolitical factors that influence southern African society. Commonalities regarding the evolution of the isiXhosa and Afrikaans languages and the relationship between these languages is explored, for example the use of borrowings from Afrikaans into isiXhosa and also borrowings from Khoikhoi into isiXhosa. The borrowings show how these languages (and cultures) are intimately connected and that there is also constantly language shift, even today. To date, there has been little or no research that traces the linguistic relationship in relation not only to the evolution of isiXhosa and Afrikaans languages, but also the oral literary genres that are underpinned by these languages. This is done against a sociopolitical and historical theoretical paradigm.