Hermeneutic Analysis: Making Sense of Symbolic Expressions in Izibongo of King Shaka

Abstract

A substantial number of scholars have previously documented African praise poems, including those that relate to the Zulu kings and queens. To a large extent, these recordings only focus on the content and structural approach to this genre of orality, with little attention paid to contextual meaning. As such, issues of metaphoric expressions are perpetually ignored, which by their very definition contain the underlying meaning and purpose for the crafting of such poetry. Therefore, this article addresses the problem of hidden meaning in Zulu kings’ praise poems that many writers on the subject have missed. As it has long been established that praise poetry, from a Zulu perspective, was/is a story about the life and times of a particular king, a hermeneutic paradigm was used to conduct an inquiry into the most prominent king in the history of the Zulus—King Shaka, the founder the great Zulu nation. The study reveals that reference to this kind of poetry as “praise” itself is problematic, since the craft was used as an evaluation of the king. It both praised and critiqued the king’s reign. With regard to King Shaka, the study reveals that Shaka was a revolutionary and a freedom fighter, contrary to the popularly held view that he was a brutal despot who went around killing innocent people to satisfy his own ego.

The importance of understanding and making sense of Zulu traditional hymns as a symbol of expressing worship: Cognitive hermeneutics and hermeneutics of hymnody theories

“…Consistent with the previous studies (Kloppers 2020;Ngema 2020), the findings of this study reveal that singing an incomplete hymn eradicates the original meaning and purpose of the hymn. The researcher found that although contemporary gospel musicians are inspired by Zulu traditional hymns iCilongo Levangeli, the musicians must examine the context to understand the hymns.…”

“…Unfortunately, these three Zulu traditional hymns are misinterpreted and misunderstood by contemporary gospel musicians as they do not sing them completely. The issue of misinterpreting and misunderstanding Zulu traditional hymns is partly attributable to the original contemporary musicians' ignorance of the underlying true meaning, emotions, state and purpose (Ngema 2020;Thebe 2020).…”

“…Many scholars have documented that musicians should sing and place traditional hymns within the context of their underlying meaning and express authentic emotions that are essential to understanding the hymns' profound meaning and spirituality (Tönsing, Wepener & Vos 2015;Tshabalala & Patel 2010). Various historical, demographic, theological, economic and technological shifts influence how contemporary gospel groups and musicians interpret their music (Davies & Thate 2017;Ngema 2020). As a result, some contemporary gospel worshippers and musicians pay little attention to the contextual meaning of the song and in particular the contextual meaning of traditional hymns (Abiolu 2019;Davies & Thate 2017;Wild-Wood & Wood 2004).…”