A Companion to African Rhetoric argues for a holistic view of rhetoric on the continent, gives an outline of what African rhetoric is, and serves as a pivotal anthology with contributions from African, Afro-Caribbean and African American rhetoricians to understanding African rhetoric.

A Companion to African Rhetoric, edited by Segun Ige, Gilbert Motsaathebe, and Omedi Ochieng, presents the reader with different perspectives on African rhetoric mostly from Anglophone sub-Saharan Africa and the Diaspora. The African, Afro-Caribbean, and African American rhetorician contributors conceptualize African rhetoric, examine African political rhetoric, analyze African rhetoric in literature, and address the connection between rhetoric and religion in Africa. They argue for a holistic view of rhetoric on the continent.

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements

Introduction by Segun Ige

Part I: Conceptualizing African Rhetoric

1. What is African Rhetoric? The Constitutive Imagination in Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings

Omedi Ochieng

2. Towards an Understanding of African Rhetoric: A Decolonial Approach

Yunana Ahmed

3. African Oral Tradition: A Twenty-First Century Perspective

Rewai Makamani

4. Classical Rhetorical Ethics: Implications for African Rhetoric

Segun Ige

Part II: African Political Rhetoric

5. Real and Imagined: African Union’s 100-Year Construction of Africa (1963-2063)

Segun Ige

6. A Tale of Two Namibian Political Parties: A Stylistic and Rhetorical Analysis of the 2014 Election Manifestos of SWAPO and DTA Political Parties

Petrina Batholmeus and Jairos Kangira

7. Alienation in Contemporary African Presidential Rhetoric: Muhammadu Buhari and Biafra Rhetorical Performance

Aliyu Yakubu Abdulkadir

Part III: African Rhetoric, Languages, and Literature

8. An Afrocentric Approach to Understanding ‘Face’ and the Rhetoric of Collective Identity Busayo Ige
9. Graphological Strategizing as Solution to Problems of Linguistic Heterogeneity: Translatability and Orality in Written Poetic Discourse of English Expression

Mabel Osakwe

10. African Rhetoric as an Emergent Subfield: A Review of Literature and Reflections on Critical Issues

Nancy Henaku and Ruby Pappoe

11. African Rhetoric and Literature: A Journey through Words and Writings

Aaron Smith

12. Yoruba Chants and Chanting as Rhetorical Devices

Yomi Daramola, Femi Abiodun, and Olusegun Titus

13. Calypso Poetics: The Rhetoric of Trinidad’s Lingua Franca

Kela Francis

14. A History of African American Orature, the Badman Hero, and Gangster Rap

Dennis Winston

15. From a Grubby turf to a dome: Praise Poetry as a rhetorical stratagem in political domain Stanley Madonsela
16. Rhetoric, Orality and Embryonic Trends in Africa and Beyond: Unpacking the Oratorical Genius of Mbuli

Gilbert Motsaathebe

Part IV: Rhetoric and Religion in Africa

17. Epistemological Considerations of Religious Rhetoric in Africa: Language, Spirituality, and Incantation Discourse

Rufus O. Adebayo

Index

About the Authors