Matigari : an African novel as oral narrative performance

The examination of Matigari's pre-composition history, the role of the Gikuyu oral literary tradition in its conception, its mode of characterization, its structural and compositional organization, the kinds of linguistic and stylistic formulas that it employs, as well as the details of its temporal, geographical, and philosophical setting all point to the fact that the novel was meticulously written to conform to the characteristics of the traditional African oral epic narrative performance. Indeed, the following analysis shows that Matigari possesses the generic traits shared by many cultural epics from classical times to our days.Not