Orality in the service of Karamojong autonomy
Polity and Performance
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2173487 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ben Knighton (0000-0002-0418-2011) |
| Year | 2006 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 137-152 |
| Publication date | 2006-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of African Cultural Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1369-6815 • E-ISSN: 1469-9346 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13696850600750376 |
| OpenAlex | W2120168125 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 34 |
It has been assumed by Jack Goody and others that literacy facilitates the external penetration and domination of African societies. However the case of the Karamojong in north-east Africa challenges the inevitability of the rise of literacy. Where there is no thirst for literate education, the very features of orality noted by Jack Goody function to maintain traditional politics against predations by state or global economy. The Karamojong age-class system has proven persistent in the face of various attempts to ‘develop’ Karamoja. The key to the maintenance of the rule of elders is the performance of prayer at the sacrifice of an ox, yet prayer has been relatively little studied in research on orality. Translations of prayers recorded at an initiation ceremony reveal the usual antiphonal litany that makes the sacrifice a consensually determinative event. Policy-making comes about not by public discussion, but in the prayers as the prayer-leaders command the actors, whether animate or to us apparently inanimate, in their world to bless the life and lives of the community, yet not to afflict. Politics then is most intimately related with this religion that so many observers see as marginal. The conclusion is that through a range of subtle ways, orality privileges the power of elders in a way that enables them to direct their people in ways that maximize Karamojong autonomy to a surprising degree in these times of global intervention
Aesthetics · Art · Autonomy · Ceremony · Literacy · Literature · Orality · Political science · Politics · Prayer · Sacrifice · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology · History · Law · Philosophy · Religious Studies
The interface between the written and the oral
The Written word
Cross-cultural approaches to literacy
The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society
Ways of Speaking
Literacy in Traditional Societies
Literacy in Theory and Practice
Verbal art as performance
Orality and Literacy
The theory of communicative action
Implicit Meanings
Jie Marriage
Musicology in Uganda
The Practice of Cueing among the Karimojon of North-East Uganda
The State as Raider Among the Karamojong
The Domestication of the Savage Mind
The Ox and Identification
The letter and the spirit
The Karamajong Cluster
Verbal Art as Performance1
Language and Colonial Power
Poetics and Performances as Critical Perspectives on Language and Social Life
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,2 |
| Citation span | 2006 - 2024 (19) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |