ORAL LITERATURE

Introduction

Oral literature texts are varied. Some are presented in verse, others in prose. But many oral
literature texts such as proverbs, riddles and tongue-twisters are expressed in forms that are
entirely unique to oral literature. Even in verse and prose, oral literature texts behave
differently from dramatic verse or written prose. In this lecture we will look at those elements
that distinguish oral literature texts from other texts.

What is “Oral Literature”?

The term oral literature or verbal art refers to art whose medium is the spoken (or sung) word.
Oral literature stretches back to antiquity, actually, to the beginning of society. Yet oral
literature materials are still relevant to present day world. In current days, oral literature
substance is even communicated in paper. However, the writers try to remain as faithful as
possible to the oral rendition of the texts. Modern day literary genres evolved from oral
literature. For example, the short story as we know it today evolved from the folktale and the
poetry evolved from chants, wayside poetry and court poetry of the traditional society.

For a long time, the western world privileged written literature over oral literature to the
extent that European folklorists who studied African verbal art refused to acknowledge that
there was anything artistic in that literature. However, what determines the literariness of a
text (whether written or spoken) is the artistic use of language and not its form (written or
unwritten). Oral literature operates differently from the written forms. It has unique features
that occur in it mainly because this literature is given verbally. Therefore, oral literature needs
to be studied differently.

unique features of oral literature:

(1) Speech/ orality– Oral, spoken word We need not belabour the point that oral literature
texts are expressed verbally. Now the act of speaking also involves other thing:

(2) Memory Since an oral texts is delivered by mouth, this means that an artist must have the
ability to hold the text to memory; intact with its traditional structures. This means that the
artists must understand and appreciate their culture and generic structures in order to be able
to accurately reproduce the texts verbally.

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 (3) Aural/listening skills We cannot understand something spoken unless we hear it. An
artist will contrast his voice intonation to express pity, sadness, love, contempt, anger, awe
and many more feelings. An audience needs a keen ear to discern all the different shades of
intonations and their meaning.

(4) Visual capacity Oral texts are not just read aloud but performed. For effective
communication, the artist must support his spoken words with gestures and correct body
movement. In essence then, an oral text must be appreciated with both the eye and ear in
order to understand it.

(5) ORAL Artist’s :Presence Performance means that an artist must be present. An
audiocassette or video recording of a performance will not have the impact that a live artist
would have on the audience. Besides, an artist will vary and adjust his text and style of
performance according to the audience.

(6) Audience There is always a necessity that the performer performs in front of people. The
audience is important since doing things to the audience shapes the performer’s art, making
sure that his point is understood to a particular audience. The audience is the target of
composition. There is much relationship between the artist and audience in oral literature.
The strength of an oral performance also emanates from the audience’s participation. The
audience responds to the presentation, gives comments and opinion concerning the
composition such that in the final analysis, an artist may be compelled to present a version
different from what he had in mind before he began his performance. This means that the
artist has to be a fast thinker, capable of improvising and re-composing depending on the
audience. An oral text therefore entails an aspect of communal composition. In different
circumstances, an artist will find himself giving a very different presentation of the same text.

(7) Culturally defined occasion/function Whereas written literature can be read any time,
there are specific contexts and times for performance of oral literature texts. For example in
the traditional African set-up, narratives would be told after work or during serious
discussions. Appropriate songs would also be sung according to the social occasion:
circumcision, naming, funeral, wedding e.t.c. Proverbs were mainly the domain of the elderly
while in most societies riddles were the domain of children.

Now these context-specific forms of literature are what we call genres, categories or classes
of oral literature. The function of a genre delimits its performance.

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Genres of Oral Literature

(i) Oral narratives

These are tales in prose handed down from many generations. Oral narratives come in many
forms or sub-genres. They include: folktales, stories, tales, myths, legends and epics. Since it
is not within our jurisdiction in this course to delve into the elements of these categories, we
will only clarify in summary and with examples that these tales deal with specific themes.
Fables are pure fiction and employ animal characters to comment on human beings. Myth
and legends have a mystical and historical concept such as: why things are the way they are.
For example “The Women’s cattle” in Naomi Kipury’s Oral Literature of the Maasai is a
myth on how women irresponsibly lost their cattle by letting them wander away. This myth
explains not only why women do not own cattle or any property in the Maasai community,
but also justifies the maltreatment of women by men. Myths are also called
aetiological/etiological tales. “The Origin of Marriage” is another etiological tale in Kipury’s
text that illustrates women’s folly brought about by marriage. Women have to be given off
because they are purportedly so libidinous that they can even betray their own brothers. This
myth explains the subordinate position that the Maasai woman still holds. Other myths in
Kipury’s book include “The Sun and the Moon”, which explains a natural phenomenon, that
is, why the sun shines brightest and the moon just a little bright. “Thunder and the gods”
explain the mystery of thunder. “The Fall of the Dog” enlightens on why the dog lives with
man and why it has long ears and a very good sense of smell. Whereas ogre stories and fables
discuss human qualities indirectly by use of animal characters, tales or stories are direct
commentaries on the life of people. From these stories we get a complete picture of the social
set-up, dietary and other social habits and taboos, kinship and other relations, sex roles,
beliefs, values, attitudes and philosophy of life. Like other oral tales, these stories had a moral
lesson. They would castigate greed, cruelty, robbery, selfishness, ingratitude and
maltreatment of the weak by the strong. Asenath Odaga’s Yesterday’s Today, Naomi
Kipury’s Oral Literature of the Masaai and Ciarunji Chesaina’s Oral Literature of the
Kalenjin, among other works, have many examples of such stories. “The Greedy Old Man
and the Sausage” is one story in Kipury’s book that lashes at gluttony. “The Children of the
Sycamore Tree” explains why children are valued in the Maasai community.

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(2) Songs

We mentioned elsewhere (under Poetry) in this course that there were several types of special
poets in the African traditional society. The Court poets and diviners functioned in a
restricted field of operation in that they were trained in a particular type of poetry only. The
court poet’s role would be to sing the king’s praises. He would also sing about significant
historical events surrounding the royal family. The diviner would chant poems related to the
special problems brought to him by his clients. The court poet and diviner attained their
positions after a long period of formal training and their forms of poetry were handed down
from one generation to another. The fact that such poets were trained in a special form of
poetry does not mean that this was simply mechanical poetry. In spite of the restricted nature
of these poetic forms, the poet still had to depend on his imagination to recreate the same
texts in different occasions and circumstances. Also, the court poet did not just praise a king.
In case of failure on the part of the king, the court poet would cleverly and cautiously
admonish the king in a manner that would not provoke the king’s wrath. Within the general
poetry/song, we also have sub-categories. Such sub-categories include: birth, war songs,
praise songs, political songs, dirges, initiation songs, teasing songs, work songs, lullabies and
marriage songs, among others. Indeed, in the traditional African society there were songs for
each stage of a person’s life and every occasion. These songs and poetry expressed the
people’s philosophies, beliefs, values and even their historical development. Activity Choose
a song or poem from any oral literature text of your choice and (i) discuss its thematic
concerns. (ii) identify and explain any imagery drawn from the setting.

(3) Proverbs

Proverbs are terse pithy statements of keen observation and ingenious generalization.
Proverbs are Terse in the sense that they are normally compact and brief. Pithy means that
proverbs are imbued with wisdom and truth about life. Proverbs can further be divided into
sub-genres according to themes: proverbs on religion, kinship relations, gender roles, war,
fairness, patience and perseverance, foolishness, hope, fate and many more. However, like
stories, songs and poetry, the themes of proverbs may also overlap. Classification of proverbs
should therefore only be used to facilitate reading and academic discussions and must not be
taken rigidly.

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(4) Riddles

Riddles are enigmatic questions aimed at making a person use his wit to unravel them.
Essentially then, riddles encompass a question and answer.

There are two types of riddles:

(a) Enigmas – These are metaphorical in their nature and involve comparison, association and
analogy. For example: 1) Q: I have a son with many coats A: A cob of maize 2) Q: A Land
Rover in the forest A: A Louse in the hair 3) Q: My Grandfather fell and urinated A: Cashew
fruit which when very ripe falls from its tree and its juice oozes out.

(b) Conundrums – These are usually more complicated than the enigmas in the sense that
they may come in the form of dilemma stories or they may simply be based on punning or
sound effect rather than the meaning. For example: 1) Q: Amaa, naaya, o naayieu, o naaipieu.
Kainyioo? A: Enkaya, enkiyieu, o ilkipieu (Maasai) (founded on sound outcome) 2) Q: I have
three things: a leopard, a goat and sweet potato vines. I want to cross the river but I cannot
cross with more than one thing at a time. If I take the leopard and leave the goat with the
vines, the goat will eat the vines. If I take the vines and leave the leopard with the goat, the
leopard will eat the goat. How shall I cross? A: First, take the goat and leave the leopard with
the potato vines. Then take the potato vines and leave them on the other side of the river.
Come back with the goat. Next, take the leopard across. Leave it with the potato vines.
Finally, come 164 take the goat across. This way you will take them all across safely. Anyone
can think out the answer to the second conundrum by using just one principle: there should be
no time when something which can eat the other should be left with that thing. Also, if one
remembers that there is among these three one thing that cannot eat the others, and also it can
only be eaten by one of the three, then one can easily work out an answer. Working one’s
way through the odd man out, one gets the answer. In a riddle like this, one cannot just come
out with an answer in a split of a second as one could do with most of the simpler riddles.
This kind of riddle requires more thinking and puzzling out.

Riddles are usually associated with children. Indeed, they are favourite with children. This is
because riddles are a kind of game; play. Playing is characteristic of children and certainly
the affirmation that man is a playing animal is seen in childhood. Children enjoy and learn in
play. The game of riddling is also more often than not done in a relaxed atmosphere. Also, as

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a form of entertainment for children, riddles heavily encompass humour and laughter. These
are central thoughts for children. Children themselves exhibit humour and laughter. Hence,
they enjoy and are best taught through these. The solving of the problem evokes humour
since it is a question followed by an incongruous answer. The listener tries to see how the
incongruous answer relates to the question. The incongruity evokes pleasure and humour. For
example 1) Q: You are staggering my son in law, where did you take beer? A: The
chameleon 2) Q: Old men round a beer pot A: Flies on a mound of shit At first encounter,
the answer or association between the question and answer in the two examples appears
nonsensical and incomparable. However, after some time people see the relationship and the
humour comes out. The incongruous answer is usually unexpected. In the second example,
the incongruity is manifested in the comparison between old men and flies and beer to a
mound of shit – something unpalatable. This riddle also comments on the communal tradition
of feasting (sharing) while at the same time criticizing the idea of sitting around, drinking
beer. The repercussions after beer drinking could be akin and as adverse as flies landing on
people’s food with all the dirt after feasting on excreta. Likewise, beer drinking may
precipitate irresponsible acts like thoughtless physical confrontations and verbal insults. In
most communities all over the world, children are the creators of the simpler riddles. Their
creation usually derives from their keen observation of their society and environment.

Riddles, though explicitly meant for amusement, sometimes play an indirect role by training
children in quick thinking, in intellectual skill and in classification. They are sometimes like
proverbs, used as indirect means of saying something without the risk involved in stating it
explicitly. Less common are the incidental functions of the more complex riddles as a form of
communication, an esoteric accomplishment associated with initiation, and the
encouragement of either sharing or competitiveness implicit in various forms of riddling. In
various societies, these indirect functions of riddle-asking have greater or lesser significance.
What all seem to share, however, is the explicit assumption that riddles or at least the simple
form of riddles is primarily for entertainment and, unlike proverbs, not for any deeper
purpose. 166 Though riddles are regarded as art merely for children, they nevertheless have
some relevance for the general literary background. This comes out partly through their
connection with other literary forms such as proverbs, epigrams, songs, praise names and
rhetoric. More significantly, the imagery and poetic comment of even the simple riddles are
clearly part of the general literary culture. Note (i)Generic classifications should not be taken
rigidly. It is possible to find a fable which is a myth at the same time. Sometimes the

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classifications are determined by the source. This is because some categories of oral literature
may vary according to the society from which they originate. (ii) The classification of oral
literature material also depends on the needs of whoever is classifying the genre.

Social function of Oral literature

Oral literature is an expression of and a reservoir of a people’s culture.

Now, what is culture? Culture encompasses a people’s civilization, customs, life style, stage
of development and their art. According to Ali Mazrui, an African political scientist/thinker,
culture is a system of inter-related values, active enough to influence and condition
perception, judgement, communication and behaviour in a given society. In that regard, Oral
literature expresses a people’s values and the kinds of hopes and aspirations that the society
has. It is also a vehicle that gives a society a sense of direction. It also gives a society a sense
of order. It expresses a people’s needs and expectations at a given time in the course of their
historical development.

Oral literature is a creative record of a people’s history. Oral literature reflects a people’s
worldview, that is, attitude towards certain phenomena and behaviour. For example, it is easy
to discern the attitude of society towards its women and children. Proverbs are perhaps the
best genre in Oral literature in expressing a people’s worldview.

Oral literature is didactic. It educates on the history, culture and values of a people. This
makes it a useful tool for socialization of the youth. In that regard, Oral literature is also
important in the development of identity. As the Swahili proverb goes “Mkosa mila ni
mtumwa” (he who does not have his own culture is a slave), as an expression/reservoir of
culture, Oral literature accords a person a backbone or foundation on which to stand.

Function of Oral literature in modern writing

The contemporary creative writer finds a sense of identity or foundation in his own culture
which is expressed by Oral literature. Talking about West African literature in his article
entitled “Cultural nationalism in Modern African Writing” in African Literature Today Vol.
1, Obiechina says: The West African writer is impelled in his writing to strengthen the
cultural present with a metrics of the old traditional West African culture. Under the
prevailing Cultural nationalism he stands or falls by how successfully he has undertaken this
duty in his writing. Actually, Oral literature forms give African writers not just an identity but
an idiom of expression that distinguishes African literature from that of the rest of the world.

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African Writers such as Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Chinua Achebe and Okot Bitek, among others,
have depended heavily on oral literature for their modern day literary creations. In Things
Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe uses numerous idioms, proverbs and even narratives. Chinua
Achebe literally translates Ibo idioms/expressions into English. An expression like “proverbs
are the palm oil with which words are eaten” does not only illuminate on the great importance
of proverbs in Ibo talk but also sheds light on the great value ascribed to palm oil in the Ibo
society. This is also an indigenous expression that may not make significant meaning to a
person who comes from a different culture that, for example, does not appreciate the
importance of palm oil. Also, in both Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God, Achebe portrays
the African world in relation to the supernatural and the metaphysical. Ngugi also employs
Agikuyu myths of creation and origin in both The River Between and A Grain of Wheat. As
concerns drama, firstly, it should be appreciated that drama originated from oral tradition in
the sense that the earliest dramatic works emanated from ritual performance. Traditional
drama also subsisted on mythology. It was also characterized by use of cultural elements of
song, dance, costume and drumming. Whereas masks were used to conceal the identity of the
characters, drums and songs were employed to liven up the performance. Indeed, there were
no quiet interludes in traditional drama. A drum would be played in the interlude or a song
would be sung backstage. Songs were also sung in the background as the performance went
on in order to facilitate establishing the right mood. In this regard it will be noted that most of
classical plays, if not all, had a chorus. Besides establishing the correct mood, the chorus also
helped the audience understand the performance better by singing songs that were
thematically related to the on-goings (actions on stage). Modern playwrights have also
benefited from oral tradition. For example, Francis Imbuga’s Betrayal in the City hinges on
oral tradition in the sense that it grows out of the African’s superstitious worldview of the
living and the dead. Every event and theme revolve around or draws its significance from the
death of Adika. In John Ruganda’s The Floods, we encounter the myth of Nyamgondho, the
sea goddess. Modern writers have also benefited from oral tradition in terms of
characterization of their fictional personages. For example, Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart
and Ezeulu in Arrow of God are not just people, they represent or are symbolic of their
societies’ traditions.

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Fieldwork in Oral literature

When we looked at basic/distinguishing elements of Oral literature, we saw the importance

of performance. It is therefore important for you to go to the field to experience an oral
performance in order to fully understand an oral item than just reading the Oral literature
material that has been put on paper. Experiencing the performance of an Oral item in its
original context and presentation will also enable you to fully appreciate the factors that
shape oral literature genres. Oral literature genres are better rendered in their original
language and context. Arranged performances always lack something in the sense that the
artist performs consciously and not spontaneously as he would in the original context. The
artist therefore may tend to be formal in an arranged presentation and sometimes he may
leave out some crucial aspects of Oral performance. While in the field, it is possible to
experience a performance through participation or observation. Participation enables you to
feel from within as if you were an insider of that community. Observation also has the
advantage of allowing you to objectively notice what you may have not noticed if you were
subjectively part and parcel of the performance

Fieldwork is also important in oral literature since it enables a scholar record the folk
literature of his people, which had previously only existed in memory. Fieldwork therefore
helps us preserve our oral tradition.

When collecting Oral literature material you need to consider the following factors: (i)
Genre/category – You should identify the genre and specify the type - exact class/sub-genre
of the genre. (ii) Source of Origin – you should identify the geographical or ethnic origin of
the text. You also need to get a fair understanding of the historical, cultural, political and
economic background and life style of the people. (iii) Social significance – you should be
able to explain the social implication of the performance or context of the genre. All these
should help guide your exploration and appreciation of the generic features.