ABSTRACT
‘Orality’ and ‘literacy’ are conventionally the chief protagonists of our epic human story. The language-centred story is told and retold, overtly a descriptive and incontrovertible account articulating shared assumptions about the nature and destiny of humankind. The essence of humanness is posited as language; and language in its two predestined modes, first oral then written, as unrolling the stages of human history. The technology of writing and the practices of enscription privilege the substantiality of written words. Audio is part of popular usage and perception too. In Africa as elsewhere people employ audio technologies for their own purposes: composing, performing, listening, and more. Audio technologies enable us not only to hear but to document and embody music, volume, tempo, sonic structures, dynamics, intonation or intensity, and multiple ensembles as well as solo performers, and bring to notice elements that had before been defined out of existence by the prioritizing of the verbal.
