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

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.’