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Oral Literature As A Medium Of Teaching Moral Values To Selected Schools
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It should, however, be noted that “there are three categories of
literature in Africa, namely oral literature in African languages,
written literature in African languages; and written literature in some
European languages†(Sone 2009, p. 157). Of these three, oral literature
in African languages is naturally the oldest and most predominant in
Africa. This is so because its creators and users are, generally
speaking, non-literature, rural and agricultural. From the above
observation, it follows naturally that an awareness of the African
people can only come from the knowledge of the culture, customs and
knowledge systems which are vastly found in African oral literature.
Thus, oral literature provides the proper milieu for the release of
creative energy necessary for the development of a sense of cultural
belonging that sustains the foundation of a common identity. It is for
this reason that Kimani (as quoted by Ganyi (2016, p. 17)) makes the
following statement:
Orality has been an important method of
self-understanding, creative relationships and establishing equilibrium
between body, soul and environment. Through oral [literature] ,
communities have been able to pass through values, attitudes, knowledge
and modes of practice for generations (Kimani 2010).
Recounting the agelessness of oral literature as folklore in human history, Ganyi (2016, p. 19) also quotes Bynum (1974):
For
many millennia, the only instrument of rhythmic words and narrative
known in any part of the world was the tongue men were born with [ . . .
] so for long ages, so for any way any knowledge could survive from one
generation to another was through oral tradition. Rhythmic speech was
the world’s first great medium of communication for complex ideas and
there were certainly media men of astonishing skills long before anyone
on earth knew how to write.
It is worthy of mention that prior to the
advent of Ruth Finnegan’s magnum opus Oral Literature in Africa (1970),
it was normal practice and even scholarly in some circles to see oral
literature as an appendage of disciplines such as Anthropology,
Folkloric Study, History, Cultural Studies, Religious Studies, and even
Sociology. Oral literature was never seen as literature, not to mention
being studied as literature. Today, as a result of the pioneering works
of scholars like Finnegan, Okpewho, Tala, Nketia and many others, oral
literature in Africa is becoming a robust and thriving field of study.
In its process of evolution, it has encountered prejudice and
misinterpretation by many scholars who attempt to coerce it into other
non-literary disciplines.
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