Robert Cancel ⎻ In Search of the African Storyteller: An Overview and Particular Examples from Zambia, or What exactly do scholars do with these things?

Generations of UW Madison students have had a near unique exposure to African storytelling in the form of the popular course taught by Harold Scheub and, lately, Matthew Brown.  A next step away from this general syllabus is to consider the current state of storytelling on the continent and how it is being studied.  In order to do justice to such a complex combination of ancient plots and images and living vibrant performance, we would benefit by employing a multi-disciplinary approach.  My talk will suggest the efficacy of some theories and methods, while applying them to the specific findings and experiences accrued in almost fifty years of collecting oral narrative performances in Northern Zambia. I will share some subtitled videos of Zambian storytellers in order to consider both the immediate meaning and context of these events and their broader reflections of local conditions at the time of collection.  Finally, I’d like to speculate on the persistence of storytelling activities in the face of the spread of electronic mass media and cell phones.