Comparative Rhetoric: Applications in African Studies

Comparative rhetoric studies the mode of public address among a specified group of people and the theories and values governing their public address in specific cultural contexts. Two ways to consider the subject of values in comparative rhetoric involve values as norms and values as appeals. Values assumed to be held by the audience are the bases for persuasion and may be studied as possible appeals in public address. During Kenya's parliamentary election of 1969 the appeals of political speakers were classified into four categories: personal qualifications, audience values or dis-values, speakers' past accomplishments, and promised future accomplishments. These appeals indicate the ambivalence that was felt in this country between traditional value systems and modern or national value systems: the wisdom of age and the youth of modern education; women's rights challenging a traditional value system; new goals of independence and nation building conjoined with pragmatic appeals for sharing the wealth. The specific content and use of value strategies depend upon the national and historical context. Therefore, to study comparative rhetoric requires in-depth preparation and access to field data, if not field work itself. (HOD)