African Folklore: An Encyclopedia - Marshalls University

African folklore 866
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HAROLD SCHEUB
See also Callaway, Bishop Henny; Oral Traditions; Praise Poetry; South Africa
SOUTHERN AFRICA:
CONTEMPORARY FORMS OF
FOLKLORE
The debate surrounding oral literature in South Africa is a vibrant one. The new political
order has introduced a renewed pride in what it is to be African, and there has been a
revival in the status and role of oral literature. This form of literature is taking its rightful
place alongside written literature and is now being taught at schools and universities.
Furthermore, it is also being used in innovative ways to teach people about national
issues such as AIDS, agriculture, and family planning. The didactic nature of this
material is ensuring its recognition in the new educational structures in South Africa. But
if the traditional verbal arts are to serve any long-term useful purpose, then they must be
taught and recognized as dynamic, living traditions that have much to offer.
Oral literature in South Africa finds itself at the center of the debate addressing the
questions, “What is literature?” and “How is it to be taught?” The orality-literacy debate
and the relevance of the oral word alongside the written word are the focus of much
discussion worldwide. David Coplan talks of extending terms such as orature and oral
literature to “auriture,” which encapsulates not only the oral and the written, but the aural
as well (1994, 8). In a similar way, Elizabeth Gunner (1989) discusses the mixing of
genres in terms of the orality-literacy debate. The crux of the matter is that these debates
impact on the definition of oral literature in South Africa, and whether it is in fact
necessary to classify and define it in the first place.
Earlier scholars, such as G.P.Lestrade (1959), who are recognized as pioneers in the
classification of oral literature generally outline three separate areas of oral literature in
southern Africa: folktales, wisdom-lore, such as riddles and idioms, and oral poetry.
These traditional genres are explored further in Russell Kaschula’s Foundations in
Southern African Oral Literature (1993), but this volume also cautions against a