Oral Literature as a Spring-Board for Value Inculcation to Children (Published)
It has been observed that societal ills and vices abound in every nooks and crannies of this country and all over the world. The rate at which the youths are involved in immoral behaviour is a thing of concern to everyone. Many people are of the opinion that the disregard for and loss of our rich indigenous cultural values that encourage morality and good behaviour which the children and youths of the past were known for are responsible for these ugly situations in the country today. Many children and youths do not speak their indigenous language (mother tongue) neither do they understand the culture and traditions of their people. This is not surprising as culture and tradition go hand in hand with language. This paper supports that the only way out is for us to return to our cultural tradition which the people of the past used in entertaining and educating their children and youths. The paper is of the view that oral literature (folktale), when used to lay solid foundation in upbringing and education of the youths, will go a long way in inculcating moral values to them. The paper also advises that parents and teachers should serve as the mirror or model through which the children imitate and imbibe the societal values and aid in curbing immoral behaviour in the society. It also aims proffering a teaching model by which Igbo folktale can serve as a tool for inculcating core values to children and youths.
Keywords: Culture, Oral literature, Tradition, children, folktales, value inculcation
The Problems of Translating African Oral Literary Texts into Their Western Equivalents (Published)
It is commonly believed that one of the problems of African literature, and particularly oral literature scholarship, has been how the African writer can render cultural effects, ideas, thoughts, feelings, and sensibilities from the vernacular culture into English, as authentically and imaginatively as possible, in a language that is quite alien to the cultural environment being portrayed (Obiechina 56). The challenge posed by the evocation of equivalent feelings and association as well as fidelity to social and cultural facts has crucially installed and inscribed translation studies in the discursive dialectics of African oral literature and cultural studies. Drawing insight from the perspective on the theory of anthropological relativism and the need to anchor oral literary research on African cultural milieu with a view to account for or understand certain beliefs and behaviours in their local contexts (Eagleton 62), this study investigates this problem within the discourse of African oral literature which is fraught, as it were, with a number of prejudices and misconceptions. It therefore makes the case that the scope of translation studies in African oral literature be widened to achieve what has been referred to as conceptual recuperation whereby certain aspects of African concepts that have suffered distortion, demonization and marginalization are recovered and reinstalled (Opata 74).
Keywords: Culture, Oral literature, Tradition communication., translation
