African Oral Literature: notes

What it is

• Oral literature: stories, songs and sayings passed on by speaking, not writing.
• Storyteller: performs for the group, often at night around a fire, using voice and gesture.
• Call and response: the teller calls and the audience answers, so everyone joins in.

Forms

• Folktale: a short, simple story, often with animals, that teaches a lesson.
• Fable: a tale where animals act like people and the end gives a moral.
• Myth: a story about how things began, such as the world or a people.
• Legend: a tale about a real hero or place, mixed with exaggeration.
• Proverb: a short wise saying. Riddle: a puzzle in words.
• Praise poetry: honours chiefs, clans and heroes.

Purposes

• To teach values, to entertain, to keep history and to bring a community together.
• Written down, these forms last longer but lose the live performance and audience.