oral tradition and folklore

8/6/2019 Oral Tradition and Folklore

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An Introduction to African Literature and Things Fall Apart


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y Africa

y Oral Tradition

y Imperialism

y Chinua Achebey Things Fall Apart


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yWhat do you think of when you think

of Africa?


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Thus she had lainsugercane sweetdeserts her hairgolden her feetmountains her breaststwo Niles her tears.Thus she has lainBlack through the years.

Over the white seasrime white and coldbrigands ungentled

icicle boldtook her young daughterssold her strong sons

churched her with Jesusbled her with guns.Thus she has lain.

Now she is risingremember her pain

remember the lossesher screams loud and vainremember her richesher history slainnow she is stridingalthough she has lain.


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Excerpts from Rudyard Kipling, TheWhite Mans Burden

Take up the White Man's burden--Send forth the best ye breed--

Go bind your sons to exile

To serve your captives' need;

To wait in heavy harness,

On fluttered folk and wild--

Your new-caught, sullen peoples,

Half-devil and half-child

Take up the White Man's burden--

No tawdry rule of kings,

But toil of serf and sweeper--

The tale of common things.

The ports ye shall not enter,The roads ye shall not tread,

Go mark them with your living,And mark them with your dead

Take up the White Man's burden--

Ye dare not stoop to less--

Nor call too loud on FreedomTo cloke your weariness;

By all ye cry or whisper,

By all ye leave or do,

The silent, sullen peoples

Shall weigh your gods and you.

Take up the White Man's burden--Have done with childish days--

The lightly proferred laurel,

The easy, ungrudged praise.

Comes now, to search your manhood

Through all the thankless years

Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,

The judgment of your peers!


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y Lets start with the lighter material . . .

Oral traditions and African Folklore


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y Traditionally, Africans have revered good stories andstorytellers

y Ancient writing traditions do exist on the African

continent, but most Africans today are primarily oralpeoplesy African "orature" ( orally composed and transmitted

literature)

y

created to be verbally and communally performedy They remain living traditions


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y Every human culture in the world seems to createstories (narratives) as a way of making sense ofthe world.y

the particular narratives meanings, themes,genres, and styles of story telling around the worlddiffer

y

African proverbs and stories draw upony collective wisdom to serve important social and

ethical purposes.


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y Animal stories have many variations in the oraltraditions of Africa.y West African origins, smaller and vulnerable

creatureslike tortoise or spider -- often have specialintelligence and human characteristics

y Tricksters

y Large, powerful animals (lion, elephant) are often

tricked


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y But like trickster figures in the folklore of many world cultures,Tortoise misuses his knowledge.

y Tricksters individualistic, non-conformist behavior creates havoc and

disharmonyy can threaten the survival of the community.

y Secular tricksters like Tortoise often project the kinds of evil forces andbad behaviors that the community battles for survival

y The tricksters bad anti-social behaviors are usually punished,

y The evil forces unleashed are controlled or defeated.


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y Oral African storytelling is essentially a communalexperience.y Everyone participates in formal and informal storytellingy participation is an essential

y In many of these cultures, storytelling arts areprofessionalized (i.e. bards)y have mastered many complex verbal, musical, and memory

skills after years of training.

y These living traditions continue to survive and adapt to thechallenges of modernization facing Africa today


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y Colonialism: the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion ofcolonies in one territory by people from another territory

y Imperialism: the policy of extending the rule or authority of an empire ornation over foreign countries, or of acquiring and holding colonies

y In Africa:y As early as the Roman empire, Europeans believed the African nation to be

primitive or subhuman

y In the 1800s, Missionary work began as a way to make amends after slavery hospitals, schools, and churches were establishedy But government systems controlled by outsiders followed

y Westerners like King Leopold II of Belgium publically claimed to want to help

the African continent, but they really wanted to help themselves to its richesand resources (like ivory and rubber)y Congo received the brunt of imperialist violence and war - savage beatings,

widespread killing, and frequent mutilation when the unrealistic quotas were not met

y By 1914, Britain controlled thirty percent of the entire continent (countries likeBelgium, Portugal, Italy, and France also took piecesy The country of Zimbabwe only received independence from Britain in 1980!


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y Albert Chinualumogu Achebey BORN November 16, 1930, in Ogidi, Nigeria.

y Child of a Protestant missionary

y Received his early education in English

y his upbringing was multiculturaly as the inhabitants of Ogidi still lived according to many

aspects of traditional Igbo (formerly written as Ibo)culture (Nigeria).


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y In the 1950s, Achebe was one of the founders of a Nigerianliterary movementy Drew upon the traditional oral culture of its indigenous peoples.

y In 1959, he published Things Fall Aparty A response to novels, such as Joseph ConradsHeart of Darkness,

y Tired of reading white mens accounts of primitive, sociallybackward, and, most important, language-less native Africans

y TFA conveys a fuller understanding of one African culturey set in the 1890sy portrays the clash between Nigerias white colonial government and

the traditional culture of the Igbo people.y shatters the stereotypical European portraits of native Africans.y Portrays the complex, advanced social institutions and artistic

traditions of Igbo culture prior to its contact with Europeans.y Yet he is just as careful not to stereotype the Europeans


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y Achebes education in English and exposure toEuropean customs have allowed him to capture boththe European and the African perspectives on:y

colonial expansion, religion, race, and culture.

y Achebe has become renowned throughout the worldas a father of modern African literature, essayist, andprofessor ofEnglish literature at Bard College in New

York.

oral tradition and folklore

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