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Speech Craft 1st Edition by Joshua Gunn Ebook PDF
Speech Craft 1st Edition by Joshua Gunn Ebook PDF
Description
The third image is of a woman talking through a microphone held in her hand and a pie chart projected
at the top right corner.
Modern and historic examples of activism and advocacy lay the groundwork for students' social justice involvement.
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Bettmann/Getty Images
LaunchPad for Speech Craft reflects the interactive, student-friendly, and fun spirit of the book. Digital
Dives, a feature in most chapters, drives students to LaunchPad, which also includes:
• LearningCurve adaptive quizzing, which gives individualized question sets and feedback based on
each student's correct and incorrect responses. All the questions are tied back to the e-Book to en
courage students to read the book in preparation for class time and exams.
• The video assignment tool, which makes it easy to assign and assess video-based activities and
projects, as well as provides a convenient way for students to submit video coursework.
• Easy LMS integration into your school's learning management system.
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• Speech Craft Activities created by the author for students to work on in groups or as homework
assignments.
• Speech Craft e-Book
Ken Geiger/KRT/Newscom
Digital Dives: A special feature found in most chapters that drives students to LaunchPad to take a deep dive into a topic,
either by listening to a podcast or watching a video, and then answering critical thinking questions.
Speech Craft video collection contains a curated collection of speech clips and full-length speeches, including profession
ally shot speeches such as "The Science of Dreams" and "Car Cookery: The Real Fast Food," which appear in this text. "Needs
improvement" clips highlight typical speech delivery challenges. Model student speeches show techniques such as gestures
and effectively citing sources.
Joshua Gunn
University of Texas at Austin
with illustrations by
Brian and Michelle Sharkey Vaught
•-- Macmillan
bedford/st.martin's
Learning
Boston I New York
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except as may be express
ly permitted by the applicable copyright statutes or in writing by the Publisher.
21 0 9 8 7
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Acknowledgments
Text acknowledgments and copyrights appear at the back of the book on l}SJge A-1. which constitutes an extension of
the copyright page. Art acknowledgments and copyrights appear on the same page as the art selections they cover.
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contents
Preface
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Preface
What you hold in your hands or see on your screen is like all the other introductory textbooks on pub -
lic speaking and presentat ions - except that it's not. Speech Craft is similar to its siblings because the
way public speaking has been taught has changed very little for over a century, 1 despite the technolog-
ical revolutions of telephony and television, despite the cultural reconfigurations wro ught by radio
and wire less. As with the first college cou rses in public speaking, most ofus still teach three or four
speeches, from celebrating to informing to persuad ing . As the postmodern prophet David Byrne of the
aptly named musical group Talking Heads once intoned, "same as it ever was!"
I would argue that the craft of public speaking has not changed much for thousands of years. The
renowned scholar of oratory Herbert A Wichelns put it we ll in 19 2 5: "Human nature being what it is,
there is no likelihood that face -to -face persuasion will cease to be a principal mode of exerting influ -
ence." There is an end uring relation between the human and speech, and our need and desire to influ-
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ence each other in flesh and voice has seldom wavered for any democracy. i Perhaps because we define
our humanity in speech, in a broad sense, the principles of public speaking h ave remained relatively
intact since th e time of Aristotle. Speech Craft shar es with its kind in this century- and wit h so very
many in centuries past- the continuation and celebration of the principles and methods of a very old
art. Like ot h er books on public speaking, this guide strives to uphold the values of public belonging and
betterment through the cultivation of ear n est and humane calls and responses. As teachers and schol-
ars of speech, our shared mission is to better behold how good it is to dwell toget h er in speech, to para-
phrase a famous Hebrew psalm.
Speech Craft's difference is one of emphasis: speechmaking is presented, first and foremost, as the in-
dispensable art of com mu nity -buildin g, as the primary means of constituting or reconstituting a com-
mon company through oratory. Whether a speaker calls for rallying behind a cause or simp ly exp lains
to others how to make a green smoothie, a community of listeners must be created prior to that, and to
this end the bonds between people must be forged or renewed.first. Among the dominant genres of
speaking today, such an emp h asis is most discernable in celebratory or epideictic speaking: celebratory
speeches often honor or praise a person or event, but really these are about reckoning with a communi -
ty through commonly shared beliefs and values. Speaking to inform and persuade others does this too,
of course, but the celebra tory speech puts the community-building purpose front and center. Similarly,
Speech Craft spotlight s the fostering of community.
Whether a speaker calls for rallying behind a cause or simply explains to others how to
make a green smoothie, a community oflisteners must be created prior to that, and to this
end the bonds between people must be forged or renewed.first .
Over the last centur y, the introductory public speak ing course - or the "basic course," as it is some-
times called - has shift ed to accommodate the n eeds of stude nt s and society alike. As we know it to-
day, the public speaking cour se was created to address the new kind of students seeking high er educa-
tion after the Civil War, especially after U.S.President Abraham Lincoln signed th e Morrill Land Grant
Act of 18 6 3 into law. Unlike the more privileged students attending American private sch ools at the
time, the newer stude nt s enro lling in Land Grant colleges and universities needed additional instruc-
tion in writing, speaking, and basic English fluency. Aiding the development of "oral English" and
composition classes was the rapid publication of textbooks penned with these new students in mind.
The related fields of rhetoric, rhetoric and composition, speech, public speaking, and communication
studies were as much a product of this new ecology of textbooks as they were emergent curricu la.1
Public speaking and presentation-skills classes are no longer the purview of public education, since
these are needed by virtually any student today. What remai n s common to the basic course, whereve r
it is taught, are the ideals behind the creation of our great, public instit ution s oflearning: vibra nt, di-
verse communities; social mobility; and the access to civic participation that fluency and literacy bet-
ter enab le. Listening and speaking well are no guarantee that these ideals will become a reality, but
these skills w ill benefit students' lives because, ultimately, they are valu able in and of themselves.
What remains common to the basic course, wherever it is taught, are the ideals behind the
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creation of our great, public institution s oflearning : vibrant, di ver se communities; soci al
mobility ; and th e access to civic participation that flu ency and literacy b etter enable.
A Focus on Community
For pub lic speaking textbooks, the close association of speech with the functions of citizenship in the
early to mid-twentieth cent ury led to an emp hasis on pub lic deliberation and debate, ! while a general
trend toward the cultivation of workplace skills shifted textbooks toward a more professional or voca-
tional direction in the later twentieth century. As edu cators in various locations conti nue to adapt the
basic comm unic at ion course for local needs, it seemed to me and my collaborators at Bedford/St . Mar-
tin 's that a guide re-centered on time-tested methods and principles, yet adapted to newer generations
of students and teachers, would be both welcome and helpful.
Rather than emphas izing this or that partic ul ar end, benefit, or consequence, what if we produced a
guide to the craft of speech that returned to the heart of the art as an ethical, cultivated practice? Learn-
ing the skills of writing and delivering a speech will help students in their educa ti on, in their careers ,
in participating in public life, and most certa inly in advocating for social change. But more fundamen-
t al to all of these ends is the means of building relationships with groups, which ultim ately form the
net of an audience in a moment and with a community over time. Public speaking is an art that aspires
toward being with others, toward sharing, and, however paradoxically, toward listening better. I wager
this labor of communing - this networking, especia lly among presumed strangers - is really what
public speaking is about for us today.
Public speaking is an art that aspires toward being with others, toward sharing, and, how -
ever paradoxically, toward listening better.
For years I taught the basic interpersonal communication course, which is a class that introduces
students to the insights of social scientific researc h for the purpose of h elping them to create and
maintain meaningful and fulfilling relationships at a personal level ..i Speech Craft has been written in
parallel to such aims, but wit h a focus on relationships to a group or an audience, or more to the point,
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to a community or "public." To put the difference of the emphasis of Speech Craft bluntly: the craft of
speaking is not about you, it's about us.
I committed to writing a public speaking and presentation textbook because the field that
pioneered its teaching and study committed to me.
I committed to writing a public speaking and presentation textbook because the field that pioneered
its teaching and study committed to me. You see, I am a first generation college student; I became a pro-
fessor of communication, in large part, because the field and its teachers encouraged me in high
school. At the time and place I grew up, many young people were not expected to attend college.
Whereas my loquacious loafing in high school hallways frustrated more than a few teachers, a some-
what unconventional history teacher encouraged me to channel my chatter into competitive speech
events and eventually mock trial and competitive debate. It was thr ough my experiences with what is
dubbed "policy debate" that I began to discover I had a passion for crafted speaking - not just speak-
ing, but planning and researching it ahead of time.
I eventually got to college because of a debate scholarship. Regardless, communication or communi-
cation studies, the field formerly known as "Speech," introduced me to the life of the mind by helping
me to better coordinate my ears and mouth. In fact, the sample speech in Chapter 14 is a revised ver-
sion of the first speech I gave in my own college public speaking class during my first year of college.
And you'll never guess what the first class I ever taught was (yes, it was public speaking in the fall se-
mester of 1996).
Speech Craft was composed and developed interactively and in tandem with Bedford/St. Martin's on-
line and digital content platform, LaunchPad. Not only is Speech Craft available in a digital format, but
both print and digital versions of the book can be used interactively with online example speeches,
speech texts, and helpful tools (e.g., the outlining tool for composing speeches).
Speech Craft can be read and studied without any online content, of course. Each chapter has a stand-
alone, interactive section called a "Digital Dive" that encourages students to apply the concepts intro-
duced in the book to online examp les and scenarios. As I write this preface, I am currently developing
two asynchronous online courses for my university, and the insights I learn from this process will con-
tribute to future online content for Speech Craft.
Speech Craft . . . attempts to impart how finding one's own passion is key to communicat-
ing well.
Digital Options
For more information on these resources, please visit the online catalog at macmillanlearning.-
com/sP.eechcraft/catalog .
Digital tools for Speech Craft are available in LaunchPad, a dynamic new platform that combines a
curated collection of video, homework assignments, e-Book content, and the LearningCurve adaptive
quizzing program, organized for easy assignability, in a simple user interface.
• Easy to start. Ready-made interactive LaunchPad units give you building blocks to assign instant-
ly as is or customize to fit your course.
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• Intuiti ve and useful analytics . The gradebook allows you to quickly review progress at the class
and individual level, providing information you can use to make the most of the teaching and
learning experience.
• Fully interacti ve e-Book. Every LaunchPad e-Book comes with powerful study tools, multimedia
content, and easy customization for instructors.
LaunchPad for Speech Craf t help s student s learn , study, and apply communication concept s:
• Sp eech Craf t's Digital Dives are special features in the print book that explore a specia l topic in
depth; in LaunchPad, students can watch and crit ique videos or compare audio files and answer
critical thinking questions.
• Speech Craft's video collection include s professiona lly filmed versions of Victoria Filoso's speech
on dreams and Joshua Gunn's speech on tar cookery, as well as other mode l speeches, short speech
clips, and "needs improvement" clips.
• LearningCurve provide s adaptive quizzing and a personalized learn ing program. In every chap -
ter, call-outs prompt students to tackle the game -like LearningCurve quizzes to test their knowl-
edge and reinforce learning of the materia l. Based on research on how students learn, Learning -
Curve motivates students to engage with course materials, while the reporting tools let you see
what students understand so you can adapt your teaching to their needs.
• With video assignment tool s. The functionality of video tools enables instructors to create video
assignments. Instructors and students can add video, use time-based comments to discuss video,
and assess video using rubrics.
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For more information on these resources or to learn about package options, please visit the online cata-
log at macmillanlearning.com/sP.eechcraft/catalog .
For more information or to order or download the In structor Resources, please visit the online cata log
at macmillanlearning .com/ communication. The Instructor's Resource Manual, Test Bank, and lec-
ture slides are also available on LaunchPad: launchpadworks.com/sP-eechcraft .
Online Instructor's Resource Manual for Speech Craft, by Laura Sells, Nicolet College. This extensive
Instructor's Resource Manual is availab le on LaunchPad and from the Instructor Resources tab at
macmillanlearning .com/communication . It includes teaching notes on managing a public speaking
course, organization, and assessment; sample syllabi; and tips for using the pedagogical features of
Speech Craft. Every chapter also includes chapter summaries, key terms, lecture outlines and class dis-
cussion starters, class and group exercises, assignment suggestions, video and music recommenda-
tions, and website suggestions.
Computerized Test Bank for Speech Craft . Available on LaunchPad and from the Instructor Resources
tab at macmillanlearning.com/communication , the Test Bank includes eighty multiple-choice,
true/false, short-answer, and essay questions for every chapter. This easy-to-use Test Bank also identi-
fies the level of difficulty for each question, includes the book page the answer is found on, and con-
nects every question to a learning objective.
Lecture slides for Speech Craft provide support for important concepts addressed in each ch apter, in-
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eluding graphics of key figures and questions for class discussion. The slides are available for down-
load on LaunchPad and from the In structor Resources tab at macmillanlearning.com/communica-
tion .
Media Career Guide: Preparing/or Jobs in the 21st Century, Eleventh Edition, by Sher ri Hope Culver
(Temple University). Practical, stude nt-fri end ly, and revised with recent statist ics on the job market,
this guide includ es a compre h ensive directory of media jobs , practical tips, an d career guidance for
studen ts cons idering a major in the media industries.
Acknowledgments
As both a pedagogy and practice, thousands of teachers and scholars in the fields that pioneered pub lic
speaking as a college and uni versity course - in departments of commun ication, English, and others
- are the act u al auth ors of this book, and I am gratefu l to them for t eaching me and encouraging me
by examp le how to continue transmitting the tradition. I've dedicated this text to my mentor and
friend, Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, who is not only among the most brilliant theorists and critics of com-
munication in our time, but an activ ist , a gifted speaker, and one of the most talented teachers I have
ever learned from.
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Much gratitude is similarly shared for my instructional material collaborator Laura Sells, my col-
league for many years at the Louisiana State University, who mentored me as a teacher and scholar in
my early professorship days, and whose pedagogical approach and encouraging attitude toward stu-
dents has infused every page. Less directly but nonetheless influentially, I am especially grateful to
David Zarefsky and Stephen Lucas, whose work and example taught me public speaking and whose
scholarship I have taught in turn.
Many thanks are owed to the late, great Harold Lloyd "Bud" Goodall, former director of the Hugh
Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University, who recommended Bedford/St.
Martin's work with me after he attended my lecture on Kenny and Dolly's hit duet, "Islands in the
Stream" (thanks, too, to Daniel Brouwer for inviting me to speak that day). Senior Program Director Eri-
ka Gutierrez and Program Manager Simon Glick shepherded the project in the early years, and I am
grateful for their ideas, their unflagging enthusiasm, and their foodie sensibilities. I am especially ap-
preciative of Erika's tirelesscheerleading for almost nine years on this project. This book would not
have been published were it not for Erika's patience, careful guidance, and indefatigable good cheer.
Sincere and deep gratitude is owed to my editor Lorraina Morrison, whose goodwill, empathy, and
brilliance guided every page - paper and digital - to completion. Lorraina is truly two parts Owl and
one part Tigger to my Eeyore, and Speech Craft wouldn't exist without her. I would also like to thank
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Senior Development Manager Susan McLaughlin for her tireless support and cheerleading during the
editing process, and am thankful for her sensitivity and keen anticipation of the expectations of a di-
verse readership. An enthusiastic thank-you also goes to Brian and Michelle Sharkey Vaught, artful
mind readers! Their talent and sense of humor appears in every chapter, and it's impossible to imagine
this book without their contribution.
As with Hollywood films, an extended editorial, production, and marketing team works on a text-
book project of this scope; Speech Craft would not have been completed were it not for Kimberly
Roberts, Editorial Assistant; Kayti Corfield, Marketing Manager; Lindsey Jaroszewicz, Director of Mar-
ket Development; Lisa Kinne, Managing Editor; Tom Kane, Senior Media Editor; Mary Jane Chen, As-
sistant Editor; Sarah O'Connor, Media Producer; Jesse Hassenger, Senior Development Editor; Kate
George, Development Editor; and William Hwang, Editorial Assistant. Very special thanks to Jessica
Gould, Senior Content Project Manager, for her extraordinary efforts. Thanks to Edwin Hill for his sup-
port and leadership throughout the development of the book. Special thanks to our voice talent Daniel
Johnson, Alison Lorber, and Nik Toner.
Finally, gratitude of a personal nature goes to my colleagues Diane Davis and Dana Cloud, whose pro-
fessional advice and friendship have been invaluable during the writing of this text. I am also very ap-
preciative of my colleagues at Southwestern University, Davi Thornton and Valerie Renegar, for their
friendship and for graciously inviting me to teach public speaking - and agreeing to let me test out
this book! I am thankful for my wonderful students at Southwestern University as well, who read and
commented on the penultimate draft of Speech Craft. Also many thanks to my partner, Andrea Alden,
and my mother, Jane Gunn, for patiently listening to me talk about this project for years (and years).
I began these acknowledgments by stressing the true authorship of this book is communal, and this
certainly consists of the teachers and scholars of public speaking currently teaching the course! So
many colleagues have contributed to Speech Craft through their feedback on earlier drafts, and no
doubt they will recognize places where their recommendations and suggestions ended up in the book.
A hearty thank-you is due, then, to:
Brian and Michelle Sharkey Vaught have designed for print, web, television, and all imaginable forms
of collateral. Both Brian and Michelle hold advanced degrees emphasizing media studies, and in 2016,
Little, Brown & Co. published their adult coloring book, American Road Trip: Color Your Way to Calm
from Coast to Coast. When not designing together, they love traveling with their four boys, enjoying
the incredible richness of the Deep South, and working on their 19 6 5, 41' Hatteras.
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Chapter 1
Building Confidence in the Craft
Chapter Outline
The Celebrated and Feared Power of Speech
Freedom of SP.eech
High Anxiety: The Fear of Public SP,eaking
Public Speaking as a Civic Conversation
The Craft of SP.eech
Getting UP.There: Fake It Until You Make It
Basic Speech Prep and Delivery
Let's Do This!
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Description
One of the illustrations shows a person's nose and mouth that is wide open. Another illustration below
it shows a woman standing at a podium talking over a microphone with peop le in the audience. Theil -
lustration below it shows a longhaired man holding a microphone. An illustration in the center shows a
woman standing at a podium. The last two illustrations on the right show a man with a cake in front of
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him and two men in a car. Th e text below reads "Chap t er l. "
Have you ever listened to a speaker and lost track of time? Have you ever been persuaded to do some-
thing you've never considered before because of a speech? Have you ever been moved to tears by the
heartfelt words of a friend at a wedding or a funeral?
However much we are separated from each other physically in our changing social landscape - espe-
cially by screens - we still have the ability to move each other with speech : we entrance, we inform , we
console, and we love, both in person and from afar .
In a variety of contexts, the craft of public speaking is about the many and varied rhythms and move-
ments of hearts and minds . Across centuries, teachers of public speaking have argued the reason to
study the craft is its primary purpose : the creation of relationships with others and the strengthening
of community bonds.
This textbook was written and designed as a conversational guide to help you conquer your jitters ,
with practical tips for speaking in different kinds of situations. This text was also undertaken to center
public speaking as an art that concerns community building. Rather than focusing strictly on public
speaking as a civic mission, or on vocational or business speaking, or on the complexities of platform
speaking so popular in our time (public lectures , TED talks, preaching , and so on), the thesis of Speech
Craft is to demonstrate how building relationships with other human beings is the common core of every
type of speaking in public .
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DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI
I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.