Examining Illiberality and Vanquishment in One Selected isiXhosa Folktale Titled “UNomadlavana” (The Ragged-Clothed Girl)

Siziwe Mandubu

doi:10.25159/2663-6697/15402

Authors

Siziwe Mandubu University of South Africa https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3709-3215

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25159/2663-6697/15402

Keywords:

discrimination, folktale, illiberality, intersectionality, orphanhood, social class, vanquishment

Abstract

IsiXhosa folktales continue to embrace the didactic and pedagogical dimensions among young men and women through knowledge that is entrenched in senior citizens or the elderly. This does not exclude young men and women narrating the same isiXhosa folktales among themselves. In this article, the didactic and pedagogical value of an isiXhosa folktale is examined using intersectionality as a theoretical framework in light of recent and long-standing catastrophic phenomena such as HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 deaths that have left many children destitute, resulting in a string of orphans and child-headed families that are difficult to overlook. “UNomadlavana,” the folktale appearing in the appendix of this article, with its English translation, is purposively selected from a published repository and appreciated hereunder as a principal source of data to unravel the persecution and injustice experienced by an orphaned young girl called Nomadlavana. The sociological approach that merges elements of folklore studies, sociological analysis, and intersectionality, and is used as a methodology to uncover the perennial notion concerning stepmothers and orphans, is probed as an interconnected phenomenon, while illiberality and vanquishment of orphans are placed under the spotlight. Ultimately, illiberality and vanquishment are revealed as deeply rooted social problems affecting many unknown and known families, and suggest the need for awareness in a bid to abolish flawed stereotypes pertaining to orphans and stepparents.

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