Two Traditional Poets

This paper, argues that in his poem, 'Makxothlo' [The Owls] which is one of the shortest praise poems in the Sepedi Language where this poet called Lekgothoane praises nature more than traditional leaders and tribes. He praises the importance of birds in the lives of people, focusing more on the owl's nature than on culture and tradition. Although an owl is a particular type of a bird, having its own customs and habits, its own way of hunting for food during the night, and so on, according to tradition and culture, people place it side by side with the concept of death. If an owl comes in the night and sits on top of the roof of the hut and hoots, then it is considered as an omen of death.

Autorentext

Mawatle Jerry Mojalefa an emeritus professor of literature and linguistics and former Head of Department (2009-2013) at the Department of African Languages of the University of Pretoria. He's a Sepedi language expert in creative writing and has published novels, collections of short stories, plays and works, folklore, poetry, essays & linguistics.

Klappentext

This paper, argues that in his poem, Makxothlö [The Owls] which is one of the shortest praise poems in the Sepedi Language where this poet called Lekgothoane praises nature more than traditional leaders and tribes. He praises the importance of birds in the lives of people, focusing more on the owl s nature than on culture and tradition. Although an owl is a particular type of a bird, having its own customs and habits, its own way of hunting for food during the night, and so on, according to tradition and culture, people place it side by side with the concept of death. If an owl comes in the night and sits on top of the roof of the hut and hoots, then it is considered as an omen of death.