African Folklore: An Encyclopedia - Marshalls University

African folklore 980
primarily in their hairstyles and the wearing of earrings. These fashions are mainly
Egyptian. Egyptian soap operas and television shows are especially popular, and
Egyptian television stars serve as models for the workers.
Both new and traditional forms of folklore are continually employed by the factory
workers of Khartoum. Urban men and women of various ethnic groups continue to
express themselves through folklore, just like their rural counterparts.
References
Abrahams, Roger D. 1970. Complex Relations of Genre. Genre 2.
——. 1976. The Complex Relations of Single Forms. In Folklore Genres, ed. D.Ben-Amos.
Austin: University of Texas Press.
Ben-Amos, Dan. 1975. Folklore Genres. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Degh, Linda. 1972. Folk Narratives. In Folklore and Folklife, ed. Richard M.Dorson. Bloomington:
Indiana University Press.
Farer, Clair R. 1978. Women and Folklore: Images and Genres. Journal of American Folklore 88.
Galal-el-Din, Mohamed El Awad. 1974. The Factors Influencing Migration to the Three Towns of
the Sudan. Journal of Economic and Social Studies 1.
Gelman, Susan. 1978. Towards the Study of Postal Graffiti: Text and Context in an Adolescent
Girls’ Genre. Western Folklore 37.
Jansen, William Hugh. 1978. Purposes and Functions in Modern Local Legends of Kentucky. In
Varia Folklorika, ed. Alan Dundes. Paris: Mouton.
Mahjoub, Asia. 1977. Tradition and Urbanization in an African Metropolitan Area. Unpublished
M.A. thesis, Institute of African and Asian Studies, University of Khartoum.
Paredes, Americo, and Ellen J.Stekert, eds. 1971. The Urban Experience and the Folk Tradition.
Austin: University of Texas Press.
MOHAMED EL-MAHDI BUSHRA
See also Gender Representation in African Folkore; Northeastern Africa (The
Horn); Popular Culture
URBAN FOLKLORE: THE SWAHILI OF
ZANZIBAR
Three factors have contributed significantly to Zanzibar’s development into a
cosmopolitan city. The first is its geographic location. Lying close to the East African
coast, on the Indian Ocean, Zanzibar is well placed for contact with countries across the
seas. The monsoon winds traditionally facilitated trade with the Middle East, and trade
was also conducted with mainland Africa and India.
The second factor is migration. As early as the second century BCE, an anonymous
Greek traveler notes (in The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea) the mixture of peoples
existing on the coast. Through settlement and marriage over several centuries, a group
emerged speaking the same language, Swahili, and sharing a culture that was influenced
as much by the customs of Africa as by Muslim values from the Middle East.