Bantu, Nkodi, Ndungo and Nganga: Language, Politics, Music and Religion in African American Poetry

Ward, Jerry

Peter Tosh

9/30/94

There is a tremendous legacy of 1960s black poetic innovation that has influenced contemporary African American poetry, reflecting the diversity of the African American oral and textual tradition. Theory must be developed from within the cultural tradition, not from outside. To be most effective, critical theory should use terminology grounded in black folk popular culture, not verbiage steeped in the euro-centric/western tradition.

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