Literature: Oral Traditions

Sources

Folklore. West Africa has a large body of folklore. Animal tales are probably the most common, with folktales about the tortoise, rabbit, or spider leading the way. Primarily viewed as entertainment, these stories often served the important purposes of educating children, reinforcing social mores and cultural values, and transmitting the general knowledge and cumulative observations of a given locality. Songs, proverbs, personification, and improvisation played significant roles in these narratives, and listeners quickly identified certain animals with specific characteristics and themes.

A CLEVER MAN

With its question-and-response format, this Maude folktale from what is now Sierra Leone is a good example of the sort of fables told by nonprofessional storytellers. The story not only illustrated the virtue of patience but also educated young people about the value of using intellect to solve problems and demonstrated the importance of understanding the relationships among animals, plants, and human beings.

At one time a man went walking with three things: a goat, a leopard, and hamper of cassava. They journeyed to three days. During this journey neither the man nor the animals ate anything; they all became extremely hungry. They continued to travel until they reached a large river. There was a law about crossing this river: a person could take only one load at a time across the river.

The man reached the river crossing with the goat, the leopard, and hamper of cassava. If the man crossed the river with the hamper of cassava, he would leave the goat and the leopard together, and the leopard would eat the goat. If he crossed the river with the leopard, the cassava and the goat would remain together, and the goat would eat the cassava.

What did he do?

When the man reached the river crossing and the law was explained to him, he first crossed the river with the goat and tied it up on the far side of the river before returning for the leopard. When the man crossed the river with the leopard, he untied the goat, recrossed the river with it, and tied it up again. Then he took the hamper of cassava, crossed the river with it, and placed it near the leopard, which would not eat the cassava. The man recrossed the river, untied the goat, and brought it across the river. Then the man continued his journey with his three possessions. This man showed cleverness by preventing the creatures from eating one another. He safely reached his destination with all three possessions. This is why cleverness is desirable.

source: Marion Kilson, ed., Royal Antelope and Spider: West African Mende Tales (Cambridge, Mass.: Press of the Langdon Associates, 1976), p. 47.

[This text has been suppressed due to author restrictions]

For example, the tortoise, rabbit, and spider are usually perceived as physically weak members of the animal kingdom, but have strengths as well. As folkloric characters, these animals are broadly distributed throughout the region. All three are witty and humorous and often get the better of more powerful opponents. It is not difficult to understand their appeal to children, and the tales offer subtle encouragement for children to face their own challenges.

Other Secular Literature. Similar to folklore but differentiated by form and purpose, secular tales of origin, fables, songs, and stories with communal themes were usually narrated by nonprofessional storytellers. These literary texts often suggest indirectly migratory or relational connections among different towns, peoples, or villages. Tales of origin deal with natural features such as rivers, hills, or celestial bodies. They may entertain children, but they sometimes subtly teach limitations and restrictions to movement or warnings as well. At one time, these tales may have communicated common village or regional concerns and subtle messages about intraregional conflicts, or they may have augmented familial warnings about local animals and environmental dangers. The body of West African secular tales is dominated by stories with communal themes interspersed with proverbs and songs. These stories of life-cycle events such as births, naming ceremonies, puberty rites, marriages, and burials are woven into the fiber of folklore. Concepts of beauty, social satire, gender conflict, human foibles, and love of family, friends, and culture all resonate in West African folkloric traditions.

Epic Traditions. Epics are usually narrated by professional literary artists. Two historical narratives, the thirteenth-century epic of Sundiata, who ruled the Empire of Mali circa 1230-1255, and the Ozidi Saga of the Ijo of Nigeria, exemplify the complex oral literary traditions in West Africa.

Sundiata. The historic narrative of Sundiata was the preserve of a select class of professional literary artists, known as jeli (in Mande), or griots (in French), sworn to guarantee the veracity of their narrative. Nevertheless, they were expected to present the truth in an aesthetically pleasing and linguistically eloquent manner. In their narrative, history and art converged to stimulate the imagination, inspire the soul, and inform the mind. The narrative of Sundiata meets those cultural demands.

The Ozidi Saga. The Ozidi Saga of the Ijo people of southeast Nigeria is set in the ancient city-state of Orua, an Ijo town in the delta region of Nigeria. The story line focuses on competition for kingship and the treachery that follows. Filled with courtly intrigue, attempts to preserve family honor, and individual tragedy, this narrative is recounted over seven days. During this time the storyteller portrays eighty scenes or situations for an average of four hours per day, using spoken words, song, dance, mime, and various theatrical conventions. A distinctive cultural aspect of this epic is the mandate that the narrator must finish telling it in Orua, its place of origin, every time it is told. In his introduction to the epic, J. P. Clark-Bekederemo calls the Ozidi Saga “as much drama as narrative.”

Proverbs. West African speakers of languages such as Wolof, Bambara, Yoruba, Igbo, and Akan consider conversations filled with proverbs to be linguistically rich and eloquent. The importance of proverbs in daily and ritual communications is expressed in a Yoruba proverb that says, “Owe I’esin oro, bi oro ba sonu owe li a fi nwa a” (Proverbs are the horses of communication, when the conversation goes astray, we steer it back with proverbs).

From the traditions of the Bambara griot to conversations at the social gatherings of families and friends, most West Africans revere the power of the word and hold in awe the culturally sophisticated speaker. In many instances speech is tailored to the status of the listener or the significance of the topic. More than just pithy sayings, proverbs transmit cultural ideals and enrich discourse. Hyperbole, personification, alliteration, and mythopoetic phraseology provide linguistic agility and humor. In their original languages West African proverbs are poetic and musical. For example, the Yoruba proverb “Amoron mo owe ni ilaja oron” (A wise person who knows proverbs can settle disputes) is both alliterative and lyrical in its expression of cultural philosophy. Proverbs are expressed not only verbally but also with Yoruba dundun drums and Akan Homs, both of which are known for their ability to mimic the sound of human speech. The literary quality and style is aurally pleasing and rhythmically balanced through voice and instrument. For these reasons, the most culturally salient proverbs reverberate in drum and horn language as well as in artistic forms.

POWERFUL WOMEN IN THE OZIDI SAGA

This excerpt from the Ozidi Saga extols the power of women, as Ozidi’s mother, Oreame, seeks to protect her young son from Azeza and his allies, who have killed Ozidi’s father. Ozidi’s grandmother also protects him by various methods, and God (Tamara in Ijo language) is also female.

Azeza arose once more,
“I am Afceza! Day has broken again!
Whatever day has broken is the day.
All night I exercised myself and now it is dawn.
This is the day I shall do battle.
Yes, Ozidi after all is but a boy.

His father himself fought with us until he tired, and did us no harm.

And when at that place we killed his father, I myself with my stick was first to hit him over the head, before the others fell on him.

Others were all scared of him and running away.

Yes, as I have this one eye, a twenty-eyed man is not my match.

The way my one leg is, a ten-legged man is no match for me.

The way my one hand is, this one hand of mine really is a miracle.”

He stomped round and round.

So terrible was his show of force that Oreame flew off

straight to God—scaled the skies until she arrived and asked God:

“O God!”

“Yes!”

“This battle my son is fighting with the people of Orua, what do you yourself think of it? Do you think that my son too should die on top of his father’s head, do you think so?”
“Oh, Oreame, don’t you see the fight is a just one in your hand? Go back and seek your battle.
Who knows nothing and comes to you, that person is your animal.”

So she assured her.
After being assured,she said:
“Truly, O Mother! It is you molded us all.
I kneel to you.”

Next, at one drop, she descended to earth—like wind she flew circling over rooftops and alighting [calling aloud]:
“Oh Ozidi, my son, my son!

Hand-all-man, foot-all-man, my son, my son, my son! O
fit-to-fight, my son, my son, my son!
O fit-to-be-Captain, my son, my son, my son! O Ozidi,
rise, rise, rise!”

Source: J, P. Clark-Bekederemo, ed. and trans., The Ozidi Saga: Collected and Translated from the Ijo of Okabou Ojobolo (Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1991), pp. 82-83.

Sources

J. O. Ajibola, Owe Yoruba (Ibadan, Nigeria: Oxford University Press, 1968).

J. P. Clark-Bekederemo, ed. and trans., The Ozidi Saga: Collected and Translated from the Ijo ofOkabou Ojobolo (Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1991).

Marion Kilson, ed., Royal Antelope and Spider: West African Mende Tales (Cambridge, Mass.: Press of the Langdon Associates, 1976).

D. T. Niane, Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali, translated by G. D. Pickett (London: Longmans, 1965).

Kwesi Yankah, “Proverb Speaking As a Creative Process: The Akan of Ghana,” DeProverbio.com, 6, no. 2 (2000) <www.deproverbio.com/DPjournal/DP,6,2,00/YANKAH/AKAN.html>.