In a recent collection titled The Cambridge Companion to the Poem, Zimbabwean-American poet and Duke University professor Tsitsi Jaji undertakes a study of Shona poetic form.

Dr. Jaji is currently the Helen L. Bevington Associate Professor of Modern Poetry at Duke. In addition to being a scholar of poetry, Dr. Jaji is herself a renowned poet.

Her chapter is titled “Decolonizing the Poem.” It considers poetry beyond the written word, focusing on the function of oral poetry in important life moments. Dr. Jaji’s chapter includes a close analysis of nhetembo dzemadzinza, which is a genre of Shona oral praise poetry. According to the synopsis, Dr. Jaji’s article “addresses the reimagination of nhetembo by poets who, living in the diaspora, seek nevertheless to claim a nonhierarchical, decolonializing set of social relations.”

You can read the full synopsis below:

This chapter approaches the concept of the poem through the recitation of oral praise poetry in interpersonal exchanges and in an increasingly textual world. Blending literary history, textual analysis, and autoethnography, the chapter illuminates a decolonial approach to the poem, shifting from an emphasis on the individually authored work to the value of shared practice. Through a close analysis of nhetembo dzemadzinza, a genre of oral clan praise poetry central to Shona-speaking people in Zimbabwe and its environs, the chapter considers the function of poems in rites of passage, affirmations of kinship, and erotic exchanges, while also affirming the interpretive acumen of collectives rather than individuals. The chapter then addresses the reimagination of nhetembo by poets who, living in the diaspora, seek nevertheless to claim a nonhierarchical, decolonializing set of social relations.

We’re glad to see Dr. Jaji’s work on Shona poetry included in the well-known Cambridge Companions series. You can check out The Cambridge Companion to the Poem, including Dr. Jaji’s chapter, here.