African Oral Traditions and the Art of Writing: Threads and Continuities

APA Citation: Opondo, R. A. (2021). African Oral Traditions and the Art of Writing: Threads and Continuities. Ngano: The Journal of Eastern African Oral Literature, 2, 131-139.

Abstract

The writer of African literature can lead the way in African identity formations and reformations, drawing from its authentic cultural resources and determination of Africa’s legacy to the world, driven by the visualized identity. Writers should take up the challenge and task of representing African aesthetic and cultural values in written fiction where they use their writing to capture, interrogate and propagate traditional African values, mostly by borrowing from and basing on the rich repertoire of its customs, folktales, songs, proverbs, riddles and word play. Writing as a tool, must not be disruptive of value systems but become vehicles of values. This paper explores the need for deliberate dialogic platforms between researchers of African oral traditions and writers of Africa in all genres. Our writers can also draw from the traditional folk granary the same ingredients but cook the art in contemporary recipes for contemporary consumption. Further, we must rethink the integration of oral traditions into our educational systems. Our writers, for educational relevance, must write culture in both indigenous and foreign languages and within contexts both past and present. To paraphrase William Jennings Bryan, ‘The writer instead of displacing the oral artist, has given him a larger audience and enabled him to do a more extended work.’