Abstract
The identification of features of oral studies and especially the issue of conflict and their terms of reference, have recently become a topic of increasing interest among researchers in Southern Africa. The National Research Foundation is nowadays encouraging academics to focus on the area of indigenous knowledge systems. Included in that focus area is the recommendation that research should be done on the impact that indigenous knowledge has on lifestyles and the ways in which societies operate. The study of ways in which specific societies articulate issues of conflict is inextricably linked with the way in which language is used in particular communities. This study deals with African and specifically Zulu communities, and how the mnemonic oral tradition plays an essential role in the oral strategies used as a means of dealing with issues of conflict. These strategies are based on an age-old mnemonic oral tradition which is socialised and used as an acceptable norm of group behaviour. Furthermore it is an acceptable way of managing and expressing conflict in social situations where direct verbal confrontation is frowned upon and deemed unacceptable.
Highlights
Die mnemoniese orale tradisie met spesifieke verwysing na die bestuur en uitdrukking van konflik in Zulu-sprekende gemeenskappe
The National Research Foundation is nowadays encouraging academics to focus on the area of indigenous knowledge systems
Poetry dedicated to trade unions and political parties has been documented in Black Mamba Rising and an extract is cited on page 27 of the praise poetry of FOSATU (Federation of South African Trade Unions) as an example
Summary
The history of Southern Africa over the past three decades and the prevalence of conflict and violence in the political arena as well as the social sphere during this time, makes this study on the features and functions of various speech forms and expressions pertinent, as it serves to throw an important light on the way in which Zulu-speaking communities articulate conflict. Social life in communal societies is the area in which values and norms function, and is the environment in which cultural traditions are formed and handed down in a predominantly oral fashion, from one generation to another. In societies such as this, where the oral mode of transmission is favoured, inter-personal communication on a daily basis characterises social discourse and interaction. In Zulu-speaking communities environment of constant human communication and interaction that the energy comes which may fuel conflict This is in stark contrast to many contemporary literate urban societies in which values, norms and cultural traditions may be communicated more commonly in the written form through the media or through books, in memos, letters, notices and e-mails. The whole procedure of resolving the conflict will be regarded to be what it is: an event in the continuum of social life
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