African Folklore: An Encyclopedia - Marshalls University

African Americans 229
incurred the envy of the ruling king, who feared that Liongo might usurp the throne. The
epic is essentially about attempts by the king to kill Liongo, which succeed only after
Liongo’s son is sent to find out the secret about Liongo’s vulnerability, and then kill him.
All the events of this epic take place on the Kenya coast.
The external elements in Swahili folklore are mostly from Arabic, Iranian, and Indian
traditions. From its beginnings, Swahili culture was influenced by sea-faring outsiders
from the Persian Gulf area, who brought Islam to the Swahili. In time, Islam became a
major characteristic of Swahili culture. These outsiders many of whom settled on the East
African coast and became Swahili, made significant contributions to Swahili folklore.
These include many epic tales based on the Islamic tradition about the activities of
Prophet Muhammad and his followers, not to mention the Tales of a Thousand and One
Nights. Such figures as emperor Haroun Al-Rashid, as well as Abu Nuwas, a trickster
who is celebrated throughout the Middle East and Gulf area, are celebrated in Swahili
folklore.
Swahili folklore reflects the agricultural and maritime base of Swahili culture. Tales,
songs, beliefs, proverbs and other forms abound, dealing with the sea and its creatures,
real or imagined. Agricultural songs coexist alongside sailors’ songs, tales about
fishermen, and stories of the sea and the mythical forces and creatures in it holds.
As in other African folklore traditions, the various forms of Swahili folklore are not
isolated entities, but interact among themselves in various ways and constitute a dynamic
system. Proverbs, for example, might be based on folktales; they appear in the form of
songs and are also projected in tales. There are tales that elaborate on the messages of
proverbs, songs, and proverbs, which allude to tales, and so forth.
Unlike most African folklore traditions, Swahili folklore has developed in a culture
with a long history of literacy and urbanization. Writing has existed in Swahili culture for
about a thousand years, resulting in written records of much Swahili folklore. The oral
folklore and the written versions influenced have influenced each other through the ages.
Towns have been a part of Swahili cultural experience for over a millennium. Swahili
has much folklore dealing with or based on the urban experience. Urban legends and tales
dealing with the divide between town and country are a key feature of Swahili folklore.
The Liongo epic embodies and illustrates the complex history of orality, literacy, and
urbanization in Swahili culture. Swahili folklore was originally an oral tradition,
consisting mainly of songs and narratives. Later some of these forms were written down;
oral folklore also inspired written compositions, especially in poetry. It is thus impossible
to draw a distinct line between oral and written dimensions of the Liongo epic. On a
general level, there has been a complex interaction between the oral and written tradition
in Swahili culture, which complicates the situation of Swahili folklore. The Liongo epic
is also largely an urban phenomenon, in the sense that most of its events have an urban
setting.
References
Steere, Edward. 1870. Swahili Tales, As Told by Natives of Zanzibar. London: Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge.
Taylor, W.E. 1924. African Aphorisms, or Saws From Swahililand. London: The Sheldon Press.
JOSEPH L.MBELE