Abstract

This study aims to analyse creativity in oral poetry. The focal points are mainly three: the way oral created and /or poetry is produced, the purpose it serves and the research methods employed to diagnose these. It begins with brief introductory analysis of the study of oral poetry in general and proceeds to a descriptive analysis of a sub-genre of Oromoo Oral Poetry. The analysis is a descriptive presentation to show the characteristics of the genre in Oromoo culture. The personality, the scene, the manner and the poems are selected to give better hint about the drawbacks of previous approaches. In fact Ruth Finnegan has initiated it in: I hope ... this preliminary book … will serve to introduce others to this rich field and perhaps encourage specialist scholars to take the subject for further through detailed study of particular oral poetries in their own languages (Finnegan, 1977: xii).

Key words: Oral poetry, creativity, creative scene, creative context, contextual analysis, genre, Oromoo, geerarsa, yeelala