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Significance of folktales in african cultures
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A fable is a short story, typically with animals as characters, which conveys a moral. In many countries, they are used to teach lessons. In West Africa, they serve as a means of communication and are passed down from generation to generation. One of the most popular West African fable characters is Kweku Anansi. Ananse stories, as they have come to be known, have been told for thousands of years but became popularized in Ashanti, Ghana. Ananse stories are so well known that they have spread from Ghana to Jamaica and other Caribbean territories, to Haiti, South and Central America, and even to the Sea Islands and South Carolina (Ananse stories are told by the Gullah-descendants of enslaved Africans who live in the low country regions of South Carolina and Georgia-to them, he is known as Aunt Nancy/Miss Nancy). Kweku Anansi was born to Nyame/Nyankupon, Twi for the Great Sky God and Asase Ya, Twi for the Earth and fertility goddess. In Twi, the word Kweku means Wednesday and the word ananse means spider, so his name can be translated to Wednesday spider.
Just like the Greeks and Roman...
I chose to study the behaviors of the Spider monkey and the Sifaka. I chose them for a few reasons, one being that Spider monkeys are incredibly adorable and two Sifaka’s remind me of a childhood television show, Zoboomafoo. These two primate groups also struck my attention in class, so this project was a perfect opportunity to dig a little deeper. The behaviors I chose to observe were social interactions and locomotion. The biggest differences I noticed between the two primates were that the Spider monkeys have the prehensile tails and without exerting extra energy is able to engage in a few common locomotion patterns such as quadrupedal, suspensory and bipedalisim. Where as Sifaka’s lack a tail, and remain upright at all times, and the only way they don’t waste energy moving around is to jump through the trees. They both hangout in troops, eat similar things and mainly live up high in the trees-- but Spider monkeys care for their own young for up to a year while the Sifaka’s usually engage in non-maternal infant care.
Myth… legend or fable? Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines a myth as, “A story that was told in an ancient culture to explain a practice, belief, or natural occurrence.” Children, often sit around, listening to their elders speak of myths. These myths have existed throughout American culture for many centuries and will continue for many centuries to come. These myths, legends, and fables provide the elders with enjoyment, as they observe the children, listening so intensely, believing every detail, amazed at the unimaginable adventures told in each story. Myths reflect experience but go beyond limitations. Indeed the children enjoy the excitement of the fantasy a myth creates. As we grow, we need to realize that these myths, tell an imaginary story and only contain a kernel of truth. Myths serve as a mental escape, stories with few actual facts embellished with many fantasy details. Although, used to entertain, these myths can hurt or even destroy the individuals that believe them.
In this semester, I have read the Aesop’s Fables, which dates back to BC sixth century .So some of the words and expressions are little bit different from these we use nowadays. Though most of the fables are short narratives, they convey some hidden meanings worth thinking.
Simple narrative typically of folk origin dealing with supernatural beings. Fairy tales may be written or told for the amusement of children or may have a more sophisticated narrative containing supernatural or obviously improbable events, scenes, and personages and often having a whimsical, satirical, or moralistic character. The term embraces popular folktales such as “Cinderella” and “Puss in Boots,” as well as art fairy tales of late...
At first glance, what makes a fairy tale a fairy tale may seem obvious—some kind of magic, hidden symbols, repetition, and of course it’s evident it’s fiction—but fables are more than that. As Arthur Schelesinger puts it, it’s about “[expanding] imagination” and gaining understanding of mysterious places (618). While doing this, it also helps children to escape this world, yet teach a lesson that the reader may not be conscious of. A wonderful story that achieves all of this is Cinderella, but not the traditional tale many American’s have heard. Oochigeaskw, or The Rough-Faced Girl, and Ashputtle would be fitting for a seven-year-old because they get the gears of the mind turning, allowing for an escape on the surface, with an underlying enlightenment for children of the ways of the world.
According to Cornel West African Americans had "[...]rhythmic freedom if not political freedom"; this statement signifies the main importance of folktales in that they were a source of escape for many slaves. In addition, these folktales were empowering, informative, and gave African Americans a sense of community. The folktale "Deer Hunting Story" is a perfect example of how folktales were empowering. "The Deer Hunting Story" goes as follows: a slave and his master go deer hunting, both with rifles in their hands, the master attempts to drive the deer towards the slave for him to shoot; however, the slave lets the deer run past and when confronted by his master, he claims to have witnessed a white man with chairs on his head run past (60).
While these settings may be superficially different, one realistic and one fantastical, the characters of Fabletown and the post-Revolution residents of Iran share similar fears and doubts about their future and their homeland’s ability to survive its current challenges. The fairy tale creatures, like many post-Revolution Iranians, are refugees in a n...
The cleverness of a trickster is a trait that demonstrates just how intelligent the protagonist is without using brawn, approximately all of the trickster tales share this elemental habit. In these tales tricksters find every way possible to persuade the antagonist into granting their plea. For instance, the tale How Stories came to Earth illustrates this very habit by a protagonist named Kwaku Anansi who was able to effectively manipulate the python, Onini, to capture himself. As a result, Onini became stuck in Anansi’s web and has no other choice than to travel to the sky god, Nyame, as one of the key tokens in retrieving the stories conclusively. Accordingly, this quote from How Stories came to Earth displays all of the action following
To get started with my research on fables I looked up the definition of “fable”. I also asked my mother what she thought a fable was, and she ended up describing a fairy tale. I found out that fables were mostly stories revolving around animals acting out an event with a moral to it. Then I...
Throughout this semester, we have learned many different techniques that authors use when writing African stories. These techniques include rites of passage, myths, the characters of trickster and hero, and many others. One of the important things that was taught in the very beginning of the semester about African stories was that authors use these techniques in stories to make different kinds of social commentary. There are two authors in particular that have stood out in their use of heroes in order to comment on gender roles in society. One of the authors is Chinua Achebe in his novel, Things Fall Apart, and Nawal El Saadawi in her novel, Woman at Point Zero. In both of these novels, there is the struggle of masculinity and femininity that
Myths and Origins also known as creation is “A story describing or explaining the creation of the world”(“creation story”). Stories like these are mainly told by American Indians and aboriginal Australians. “ What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the intertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset” (Blackfoot Proverb). This quote, to me, shows how these stories come across to different people and how simple they can be. Everything stated in this quote is very simple to imagine, just like creation stories. Another type of myth is a trickster tale. A trickster tale is a story is “a story featuring a protagonist (often an anthropomorphized
Since their ancestors were illiterate, they told stories in the form of folk tales and such.
The description of the tales is significant in nature so as to amaze the reader, the author himself has shown signs of amazement at various points throughout the tale. Basically a drawing of the historical events has been
Aesop’s fables have always been an important part of society because Aesop’s fables take complicated ideas and, using simple characters and plots, explain them in easy to understand ways. Aesop’s fables are very effective tools in teaching children important life lessons. When I was a child, I remember hearing the story of the “Lion and the Mouse.” This story taught me that even though people may be little, they can still be great. Reading and listening to Aesop’s fables can help improve a person’s character. These stories help shape a person’s morals, whether they know it or not.
Story telling has been around for generations, people are told folklore at a really young age whether they hear it from school, their parents read them it, or they research it themselves. Africana folklore has always told a story which may be to entertain or teach a lesson. The African folklore story called Anansi the Spider, which was about a spider that had 8 legs and loved food, this story taught a lesson. The spider was offered food from many different animals and he agreed to take all the food and told the animals to let him know when the food was ready by tugging on his leg which he tied up to each of them. At one point all the animals tugged and well the rest is self-explanatory.(“Why Anasi Has Eight Thin leg” ) This taught a lesson of learning not to be greedy. Another story is called The Lion’s