Intro
About the Book
Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Figures
List of Tables
Chapter 1: Introduction
Works Cited and References
Part I: African Origins
Chapter 2: Battle by All Means: Udje as Oral Poetry and Performance
Works Cited and References
Chapter 3: Halo: The Ewe Battle Tradition of Music, Songs, and Performance
Introduction
Hypotheses
Adja-Ewe Concept of Music and Dance
Halo: Songs and Dance Performance Among the Adja-Ewes
Halo: Dramatization of Music Text Through Song and Dance Performance Among the Adja-Ewes
Target of Halo

Causes
Types of Insult
Methods of Embellishment
Social Roles
Religion
Editing and Performing Procedure
Features of Halo and Social Problematic
Halo: Positive and Negative Aspects
Lobalo and Hama: Heritage of Halo in Modern Adja-Ewe Society
Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 4: Poetry and Ping-Pong: Auto/Biographical Verbal Duels in Yoruba Polygamous Households
Works Cited
Chapter 5: Shairi and Malumbano: The Tradition of Verbal Warfare in Swahili Literature
Works Cited

Chapter 6: Moral Authority of Shona Women's Battlesongs: Revising Customary Law in the Context of Performance Within African Indigenous Knowledge System
Introduction: The Creativity of Battlesongs of Abuse and Rebuke
Research Questions
Statement of the Problem
Methodologies of the Study
Theorizing the Moral Authority of Women-Centred Songs
Institutionalized Forms of Rebuke and Insult
From the Oral Tradition to the Modern Colonial Culture
Shona Women's Songs that Deride Control of Female Sexualities in Colonial Rhodesia

Songs that Recentre Images of Powerful Shona Women During Zimbabwe's Armed Liberation Struggle
Political Satire, and Women's Songs that Rebuke Personality Cult in Post-Independence Zimbabwe
Conclusion
References
Part II: Diaspora Manifestations
Chapter 7: Battles, Raps, Cappin', The Dozens: African-American Oral Traditions of Insult
Introduction
History
The Dozens as Social Regulation
The Dozens as a Methodology for Survival
Poverty and Material Conditions of the Impoverished
Anti-Blackness
Misogyny
The Dozens: Shifting Regionally and Adapting to the Times

Regional Analogues for Playing "The Dozens"
Hip-Hop as the Adaptive "Dozens"
Inequality, Dynamics of Power, and Oppressive Institutions
Poverty and Effects of Marginalization
The Dozens: Back to Its Roots and Out to the Global Masses
Works Cited
Chapter 8: Black Greek Step Shows
Introduction
The Divine Nine: Fraternities
The Divine Nine: Sororities
Black Greek Step Shows: Shimmying, Cutting, and Cracking
Strolls/Party Walks, Chants, Group Identity
Stepping as a Global Movement
Works Cited