Lecture: Islamization as Epic Tale in Mali: the Verbal Arts of Contemporary Bard, Almamy Bah

Lecture by Francesco Zappa, Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at Sapienza University of Rome. "In this lecture, I will discuss and analyze the verbal arts of Almamy Bah, a celebrated, contemporary Malian bard whose highly mediatized repertoire centers on Islamic hagiographic themes. Through the close analysis of some of his works recorded on audiocassette and CDs, I will show how the bard raises the history of recent processes of Islamization in Mali to the timeless, almost mythic level of epic tales."

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