African Urban Oral Poetry as an Interpreter of Contemporary Realities: The Perspective of Songs by Traders of Nkoulouloun Market in Douala-Cameroon

Abstract

This study investigates African urban oral poetry as a significant instrument in reflecting contemporary African realities and addressing global concerns in the modern context. Songs are a comfortable platform for discourse in unlimited and varied topics since they easily accommodate and sustain people’s collective experiences due to their dynamism and lyric character. The study of African urban oral poetry from the perspective of songs by traders in the Nkoulouloun market of Douala in Cameroon is anchored on the argument that, despite modern forms of communication, African urban orature is a relevant voice of the present. The paper maintains that the visible technological advancement has not replaced oral performance, which continues to survive in African traditional and urban spaces, preserving the historical realities and highlighting issues of both local and global concerns. Using the performance centered approach and ethnopoetics theory as tools for the analysis of the songs collected, the study employed the participant observation and interview methods of data collection and found out that orature is not ignorant of the changes that take place in its immediate socio-political, cultural and economic setting as well as the global stage due to its resilience and sensitive nature. The paper assumes that orature emanates from the collective experiences of its milieu and moment and harbours the mores, values and ethics of the people for whom it is created and performed. The conclusion in this paper is that Cameroon urban oral poetry carries the voices of the dispossessed and acts as an interpreter of contemporary realities and further reflects life in post-independence Cameroon in particular and Africa in general.