War echoes in African voices
Oral narratives, media framings, and cultural memory in African discourses on the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6030756 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Enongnene Mirabeau Sone (Walter Sisulu University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Pages | 1-13 |
| Publication date | 2025-07-28 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | African Identities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1472-5843 • E-ISSN: 1472-5851 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14725843.2025.2538647 |
| OpenAlex | W4412696487 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 7 |
This article explores how African societies interpret and re-narrate the Russia-Ukraine war through oral traditions, media framings, and cultural memory. While geographically distant, the conflict resonates symbolically across Africa, refracted through proverbs, satire, allegories, and digital expressions. Anchored primarily in Cultural Memory Theory, with Postcolonial Theory as a complementary perspective and enriched by Oral Literary Theory, the article examines how African oral narratives and media commentaries construct collective memory and assert epistemic sovereignty. Drawing on qualitative data from community radio, social media, storytelling, and satire across West, Central, and Southern Africa, it reveals that African voices are not passive observers but active narrators of global conflict. Allegories likening NATO and Russia to feuding chiefs or metaphors casting Putin as a wounded lion demonstrate moral reasoning rooted in Africa’s historical encounters with colonialism, Cold War politics, and neocolonial power. The findings highlight Africa’s vernacular geopolitics as a site of resistance, critique, and cultural meaning-making. This article affirms that African oral traditions and hybrid media spaces are vital for interpreting global events and calls for a decolonial recognition of Africa’s expressive cultures as legitimate and critical contributions to international discourse
Armed conflict · Art · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Law · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts · Peacebuilding and International Security · Political Conflict and Governance
| Highly cited | No |
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