“Catching them Youngâ€: African Youth, Folktale and the Communication of Universal Moral Values
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25159/1727-7140/3293Keywords:
African youth, communication, moral values, African oral traditions, written form, folktaleAbstract
Many African youths can learn moral values through the oral tradition of folktales as these narratives are used as vehicles to communicate such values. In the past, the oral tradition was the main method of passing on beliefs from generation to generation by word of mouth. Technological and other developments, especially the invention of the book and the increase of literacy, have had an important effect on African oral traditions as previously unwritten folktales could be accorded permanent existence in the form of books. This has afforded African youths in different geographical locations the opportunity to access in their own time the oral folktale and the universal values that it communicates in the written form. Oral forms, such as folktales, are created and developed in specific contexts by individuals, and these can now be experienced by readers in different locations. The aim of this article is to highlight what African youths in different parts of Africa can gain from being exposed to folktales in their written form. For this purpose, four folktale stories by Greaves (1988) contained in the anthology, When Hippo Was Hairy: And Other Tales from Africa, were analysed. The selected stories are representative of certain thematic threads intended to impart certain moral values.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright will be vested in Unisa Press. However, as long as you do not use the article in ways which would directly conflict with the publisher’s business interests, you retain the right to use your own article (provided you acknowledge the published version of the article) as follows:
- to make further copies of all or part of the published article for your use in classroom teaching;
- to make copies of the final accepted version of the article for internal distribution within your institution, or to place it on your own or your institution’s website or repository, or on a site that does not charge for access to the article, but you must arrange not to make the final accepted version of the article available to the public until 18 months after the date of acceptance;
- to re-use all or part of this material in a compilation of your own works or in a textbook of which you are the author, or as the basis for a conference presentation.
Accepted 2017-10-18
Published 2018-04-19