Shepherd’s Oral Poetry Creativity, Performance, Transmission and Content Analysis in South Wollo Zone, Ethiopia

Abstract

This study was conducted on Shepherd’s oral poetry in the Northern part of Ethiopia, South Wollo Zone, Legambo  Woreda. It aimed to describe the creativity, performance, transmission of the poets' poems, to analyze the content, show their imagination and philosophy of life. The study design was mainly focus on performance based and the data presentation was on descriptive analytical methods. The results of the study showed that the shepherds create and transmit verbal, phrasal and grammatical oral poetry that are sung and arranged depending on the contextual settings. The findings have shown that shepherds create their oral poems and sing them individually, in pairs, and in groups. In addition to composing oral poetry for various social, political and economic issues, shepherds use it as criticism and prophecy to forecast the upcoming events. Shepherds are considered as "prophets" in the community. The local community usually eager to hear and ask frequent questions like, "What did the shepherd say?" The findings of the current study have proven that shepherds have given high dignity best owed in the community by their great poems. The community point out that their talents are unique and are the result of a genetic inheritance.

Keywords: oral poetry, creativity, performance, transmission, content analysis.

DOI: 10.7176/ADS/91-01

Publication date:March 31st 2021