Igbo Oral Poetry

FAIN: FA-11800-77

Onwuchekwa Jemie
University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN 55455-2009)

To collect and study Igbo oral poetry in a bilingual text with extended analysis. There will be four lines of enquiry: l) just what is available, especially by way of heroic poetry and divination poem cycles, and how widely diffused are these texts throughout Igbo land? 2) what transformations or modifications have the various forms undergone? 3) by what criteria do the artists - and their public - judge artistic quality 4) what light, if any, does Igbo oral poetry throw upon Afro-American oral poetry?