Т. 2. Азия и Африка: Наследие и современность

Секция африканистов: «Чтения памяти Д. А. Ольдерогге» Asia and Africa: their Heritage and Modernity. Vol. 2 241 On the 1 st of May 2017 the world lost such a scholar. It was Dr. Abdelhalim Sabbar who died in Lowton near Manchester of a heart attack with complications from diabetes. Possibly no one else had such a breadth of knowledge of the Nobíin Nubian language and culture. This was enriched by an understanding of the mediaeval Nubian language and a precise knowledge of the traditional environment of the river Nile. A qualified medical doctor, he produced thought-provoking articles for the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (Workshop on Exonyms) 1 . He was devoted to teaching the Nubian language and to its revitalization. Those of us who knew him well should have done much more to support him as a team to achieve his ambitious goals. In the words of Cicero, ‘ Nos, Nos, Dico Aperte, Consules Desumus .’ 2 The present study will present the case for traditional scholars with insights into their own intangible culture. They should be fully supported in conducting major field research, in analysing results and in implementing plans of action. This is particularly important when the goal is not simply documentation, but the revitalization of a language. Mathew Buyu (US International University —Africa, Nairobi, Kenya) Liberator or Chronicler? A Re-Examination of the Role of Poets in Pre- and Postcolonial Africa This presentation seeks to examine a dimension of Sub-Saharan African poetry that has not received sufficient critical attention the African poet as a liberator. First the paper recognizes the need to widen the scope of definition to include poetry that traverses tremendous cultural and historical span. The popular assumption long held by Europe, that Africans did not have a literary culture prior to the advent of colonialism is a fallacy that thrives on ignorance. It is both the unwitting ignorance of not knowing and the self-induced ignorance of ignoring. Africa had a vibrant tradition of creativity but imperial design was intolerant of contending authorities and aesthetics that might upstage western civilization. It was univocal, blind and deaf. An eminent scholar of African traditional poetry, Isidore Okpewho, has amassed an impressive, though by no means exhaustive, collection of precolonial folkloric poetry from sub-Saharan Africa. This paper offer a definition of the concept ‘liberation’, and will examine the role of various 1 Halim Sabbar. Numbers as geograpical names in Nubia: Endonyms or exonyms? // Paul Woodman (ed.). The Great Toponymic Divide. Reflections on the definitions and usage of endonyms and exonyms. Warsaw/Warszawa: Head Office of Geodesy and Cartography, 2012. P. 105–110. (https:// ksng.gugik.gov.pl/pliki/the_great_toponymic_divide.pdf). 2 ‘We, I say it openly, we the consuls have been deficient.’ Oratio in L. Catilinam Prima .