I Could Speak Until Tomorrow: Oriki, Women and the Past in a Yoruba Town: No. 7 (International African Library) - Tapa blanda

As ethnography it is classic - clear, rich detailed and beautifully readable. The key achievement of this book is to demonstrate so well the connection between the use of language on the one hand and the creation of social knowlege on the other. Startlingly provocative and resonant. As ethnography it is classic - clear, rich detailed and beautifully readable. The key achievement of this book is to demonstrate so well the connection between the use of language on the one hand and the creation of social knowlege on the other. Startlingly provocative and resonant.

In Yoruba culture oriki, or oral praise poetry, is a major part of both traditional performance and daily life, and as such reflects social change and structure both past and present. Karin Barber studies the oriki poetry of Okuku, a small town in the Oyo state of Nigeria. She shows how women, the main performers of the oriki, interpret the poems and examines the links it gives them between living and dead, human and spiritual, and present and past.