THE DISADVANTAGED AND THE DISABLED IN SHONA CHILDREN’S LITERATURE: THE NGANO (FOLKTALE) GENRE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25159/0027-2639/942Keywords:
disadvantaged, disabled, disability, vulnerability, human rights, Shona, folktale (ngano)Abstract
Contemporary Shona society in Zimbabwe has witnessed the mushrooming of organisations meant to protect the disabled and the vulnerable. In addition, empowering legislative measures have been put in place. In most cases, however, such efforts bear limited fruits, especially because they are not in sync with Shona practice. They are pursued as if the Shona people had never known the existence and observance of human rights and privileges. Using the Afrocentricity theory and drawing examples from the Shona ngano (folktale) genre, this article posits that Shona oral traditions are laden with the indigenous people’s philosophy and approach to various kinds of impairments and disadvantages which can be adopted and adapted by contemporary societies.
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Accepted 2016-07-18
Published 2016-10-26
