Paper short abstract:

While meditating on the poetics of lɔba (proverb-riddles) as collaborative performance that showcases Dagaaba individual and collective linguistic competence and cultural knowledge, we consider whether lɔba could become a training space for future griots and linguists.

Paper long abstract:

The word lɔɔri (singular)/ lɔba (plural), translates from Dagaare to English as 'proverb-riddle(s).' Lɔba are often performed alone or as a prelude to storytelling in Dagaaba folkloric settings and traditions. As Hampaté Bâ (1980, p.167) asserts, we cannot understand a people's history or culture or their spiritual world without a painstaking exploration of their oral traditions as found in their stories: legends, epics, aetiological tales, myths, proverbs, riddles, songs, instrumental narratives, and poetry, etc., which even today, still take precedence over the written word. In this presentation, we meditate on the poetics of lɔba as collaborative performance using the rhetoric of stimulus and response to showcase Dagaaba individual and collective linguistic competence and cultural knowledge. We will end with a tentative contemplation as to whether lɔba could be considered as a training space for future griots (xylophonists, dirgers, praise singers, diviners, etc.) and linguists.