"This is a breathtakingly ambitious project, the most far-reaching of its kind since Ruth Finnegan's "Oral Literature in Africa", expanding on that work and up-dating it in many important respects. The volume will be a very important contribution to the field of African oral tradition and literature." - Harold Schaub. The discipline of African oral literature has grown steadily from its foundations in the anthropological study of nonliterate societies to its status today as a literary enterprise concerned with the artistic foundations of human culture. Isidore Okpewho is one of a handful of African scholars who has facilitated this growth. In numerous books and articles, he has highlighted the fundamentally artistic character of this literature by stressing not only the imaginative texture of the language but especially the aesthetic implications of oral performance before a responsive audience. The book is divided into three sections. The first investigates the relevance of various approaches to the study of African literature.
The second section presents the major types of oral literature practiced in Africa, the principal concerns of the literature, and its relation to other forms of traditional art. Section three examines the place of oral literature in modern African literature as well as the steps necessary to ensure proper recording and study of the subject. This comprehensive critical work firmly establishes oral literature as a landmark of high artistic achievement and situates it within the broader framework of contemporary African culture. | 
