African Folklore: An Encyclopedia - Marshalls University

African folklore 6
problem is the thousands of remaining landmines, preventing the return to normal life and
to the farming of the country’s fertile soil. (One in 415 Angolans has had a landmine
injury.) In addition to crude oil, diamonds and minerals are important exports.
Angola’s years of turmoil have prevented many cultural rites and celebrations. In
addition to the historically important Kongo peoples, the Chokwe are perhaps the bestknown
group, recognized for their extraordinary verbal and visual arts.
JENNIFER JOYCE
ANIMALS IN AFRICAN FOLKLORE
Animals are frequent protagonists and subjects of African folklore. There are several
principal reasons why people are so likely to think about animals via narrative. As James
Fernandez (1995) suggests, it is difficult to know how we would understand our own
identity as human beings, were it not for “the ‘other animals’ that serve so conveniently
and appropriately as a frame for [his] own activity and reflectivity.” In other words, what
it means to be human is often understood by recognizing contrasts to, and similarities
with, animals.
When people tell stories about animals, they are usually talking about themselves, or
at least about animal/human relations. An important effect of this parallel thinking is that
through animal proverbs, tales, songs, epithets, and other narrative forms, we humans can
discuss ourselves and each other indirectly. Such an expressive device is an example of
allegory—a term derived from two Greek particles: allos, “other,” or something next to
or beside a point of reference, and gory, from the verb agoreuein, which is “to speak
publicly,” but with specific reference to the agora or marketplace. “Speaking publicly” in
a market implies bargaining, debate, and negotiation: in other words, politics. Such a
sense is carried through to the word allegory, for as is illustrated by the well-known
allegory Animal Farm by George Orwell (1945), the political messages conveyed by
seemingly innocent little stories can be very trenchant indeed. Here is the point, then:
Using animals as the heroes and subjects of folktales allows indirection because the
foibles or vices of some person or faction can be contemplated and discussed without
outright confrontation. In the small, face-to-face communities that characterize much of
Africa, avoiding conflict, while bringing attention to disharmonious behavior through
narratives, is of critical importance.
Cosmogonic Myths
The protagonists or auxiliary characters of cosmogonic myths are often animals. In some
such accounts, animal or animal-like beings trod the earth before humans did, and it was
they who established the first parameters of social life as humans would come to know it.
The Dogon people of Mali speak of primordial, proto–human beings called Nommo, who
shared attributes with mudfish and snakes—animals often considered “amorphous and
virtual” and “everything that has not yet acquired form,” as Mircea Eliade (1959, 148)