SOAS Research Online

Abstract

In the first part of this thesis, after some introductory notes on the people and language of Ankole, a description is given of the principal characteristics of the heroic recitations. This includes the manner in which they are delivered, the style of their composition and the language used. An explanation is also given of the metric structure which underlies these poems and of the part which is played by tone. In the second part of the thesis seven representative recitations of the 19th and 20th centuries are quoted, translated and analysed. The conclusions reached are that the people of Ankole possess a living type of oral poetry of considerable artistic merit and also of interest to the linguist and sociologist which will well repay close study and preservation in a written form.