African Folklore: An Encyclopedia - Marshalls University

African Americans 107
dispenser that contains nothing? Is Gado implying that to Zimbabwe, the stupefied man at
the pump, the credibility of Mugabe, rather than fuel, constitutes the real crisis? Is
Mugabe thus the proverbial empty barrel that makes the most noise? But you ask: does
Mugabe hear the yearnings of his subjects? Does he even care?
Effect on Population
In conclusion, cartoons offer perhaps the most solid index by which the success and
relevance of popular art in Africa may be measured. Because they have an unmatchable
capacity to transcend barriers and boundaries—racial, social, educational, political, and
aesthetic among many others—cartoons encapsulate the two radically oppositional
principles of force and innocuousness. They are at once formidable and dispensable:
provoking as they cajole; entertaining as they castigate. The cartoonist in Africa straddles
the two worlds of then and now, of the traditional and the modern, the ruler and the ruled.
As in many other departments of visual culture, the African cartoonist has imbued this
genre with a uniquely African flavor without which it will become yet another lackluster,
highbrow idiom.
DELE JEGEDE
See also Electronic Media and Oral Traditions; Oratory; Popular Culture
CENTRAL AFRICAN FOLKLORE:
OVERVIEW
The oral literature of the diverse ethnic groups established in Central Africa is well
documented. European, Gabonese, and Congolese professional anthropologists and
linguists author some of the most comprehensive studies, although numerous
missionaries and colonial officers with extensive and sympathetic experiences among
particular ethnic groups also provide first-rate accounts, at least in part, of the literary
output of Central Africa. Much of this rich literary creativity and patrimony is unknown
to the world at large, however, because of language barriers (for example, significant
works have been published in Flemish, French, and Portuguese), and the limited
availability of key sources. What follows is a guide to some of the formal types and
organizing concepts of the oral literature of the Bantu-speaking peoples of Central Africa;
specific references for further examination are offered, in the absence of major syntheses
and comparative studies.
Bantu-speaking peoples constitute the principal population of the vast Central African
region. Additionally, in northern Congo, the Central African Republic and southern
Sudan, ethnic groups like the Zande, Nzakara, Gbaya, Ngbaka, and Ngbandi belong to
non-Bantu linguistic stock, some of whose literature is well studied. The region is also
sparsely populated by various Pygmy and archaic Pygmy-related or Pygmy-influenced
groups. Their hunting and gathering activities, their mysterious forest experiences, and