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Written by Ashlee Neser (Wits University Press)
Review by Mbongeni Malaba
Ashlee Neser’s book is a thoughtful, ground-breaking analysis of the considerable poetic oeuvre of David Livingstone Phakamile Yali-Manisi, covering forty one years, from 1954 - 1995. It explores, painstakingly, the trials and tribulations faced by the author, as he tried to fulfil his role as an imbongi during a period in which the poetic form he mastered, praise poetry, struggled to maintain its cultural significance in a context which was inimical to the values it ‘traditionally’ held.
Manisi deeply valued Xhosa poetry and was, as his Christian names suggests, a devout believer, who nonetheless cherished the history and culture of his community, which he endeavoured to record. Neser’s impressive study foregrounds the tensions and contradictions that pervade Manisi’s work, as he struggled to balance his strong attachment to rural Xhosa values and his role as Chief Kaiser Mathanzima’s praise poet, on the one hand and being an office bearer in the ANC on the other hand. He had an enormous respect for education, and studied a Lovedale from which he was expelled for “having participated in an aggressive praising contest with a boy from a rival clan.” He was forced to leave Mathanzima Secondary School in order to support his family when his father became ill. He valued education as a means of attaining recognition and liberation, but was acutely aware of the sub-standard nature of Bantu Education, after its introduction in 1953. He was a committed Christian, but at times railed against missionaries for supporting colonialism. He lamented his limited educational attainments, yet was also proud of his association with Jeff Opland who, through his research, has done so much to raise the profile of traditional Xhosa poetry. His long association with Opland led to his appointment as the Traditional Artist in Residence at Rhodes University; and through this connection, he spent four months in America as a visiting performer at prestigious institutions, including Vassar College, Harvard, and Columbia. The text provides fascinating insights into the man and the medium.
The study places Manisi’s work within the context of Xhosa praise poetry, as well as that of South African praise poetry; the broader context of African praise poetry and oral literature in general. It points out the complex nature of the genre:
Although complexity is a definitive feature of accomplished izibongo, the praise poet, who is mandated to restore equilibrium where imbalance exists, is expected to command the contradictions he highlights. These contradictions should illuminate rather than further obscure, and their resolution, which may take several forms such as exhortation or censure, should be comprehensible to the audience.
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