What are oral traditions in Africa?

What are oral traditions in Africa?

Every society passes information about its history, myths, and customs along to new generations. In many African societies such material has been transmitted orally, through the spoken word. This method of passing along literature and history is oral tradition.

Why does Africa have a rich tradition of oral history?

There is a rich tradition throughout Africa of oral storytelling. Oral traditions guide social and human morals, giving people a sense of place and purpose. There is often a lesson or a value to instill, and the transmission of wisdom to children is a community responsibility.

What stories did griots tell?

Griots were an important part of the culture and social life of the village. The main job of the griot was to entertain the villagers with stories. They would tell mythical stories of the gods and spirits of the region. They would also tell stories of kings and famous heroes from past battles.

What is an example of oral tradition?

Oral tradition is information passed down through the generations by word of mouth that is not written down. Explore some oral tradition examples like legends, proverbs, folktales, and customs. …

What are two forms of oral tradition?

They are: verbal, materials, custom, belief, motion, and music and song. Verbal or oral traditions rely on the spoken word: jokes, riddles, stories, legends, rhymes, proverbs, language, and naming.

What are the elements of oral tradition?

Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. The transmission is through speech or song and may include folktales, ballads, chants, prose or verses.

What are the disadvantages of oral tradition?

The following are disadvantages of oral traditions Oral tradition may be biased. This is possible because of nature of transmission itself. oral transmission is full of exaggeration, creativity and sometimes the informant may talk of good things only.

How can we maintain oral tradition?

There are a few basic rules for magnetic recording preservation of an oral history collection:

1. Save the original tape as well as the transcript of the interview.
2. Make an audio copy for public use, do not allow an original to be used.
3. Store tapes away from magnetic fields.

What are the advantages of oral tradition?

Oral tradition offers the advantages of inducing open communication and verifiable first-hand knowledge of events from a historical reference point. This practice allows languages to persist and permits practitioners of specialized traditions to show off their skills.

What is the difference between oral history and oral tradition?

Oral history is fundamentally different from that of oral tradition; oral tradition is a way of transmitting general cultural issues from one generation to another. Oral history, as used currently, refers to the act of collecting evidence and documents, through various scientific methods, mainly active interviewing.

What are the importance of oral history?

Oral history enables people to share their stories in their own words, with their own voices, through their own understanding of what hap- pened and why. With careful attention to preserving our sound recordings, the voices of our narrators will endure to speak for them when they are gone.

What is the similarities of oral tradition and written tradition?

Answer. Answer: Oral and written forms of communication are similar in many ways. They both rely on the basic communication process, which consists of eight essential elements: source, receiver, message, channel, receiver, feedback, environment, context, and interference.

What are some examples of tradition?

The definition of a tradition is a custom or belief that is passed down through the generations or that is done time after time or year after year. An example of a tradition is eating turkey on Thanksgiving or putting up a tree on Christmas.

What is traditional storytelling?

Traditional storytelling involves a narrator transmitting a fixed story to an audience of one or more, employing various verbal tones, physical gestures, and facial expressions to evoke reactions and participation from the audience. This process is anchored in the reality that the story’s basic structure never changes.

What makes an effective story?

A good story is about something the audience decides is interesting or important. A great story often does both by using storytelling to make important news interesting. The public is exceptionally diverse. The Elements of Journalism, in fact, describes journalism as “storytelling with a purpose.”

What makes a story appealing?

We gain a sense of characters’ different personalities, views, quirks (everyone has their own voice) Dialogue serves the story (characters don’t just sit around telling each other what they had for breakfast) Dialogue deepens or develops connections between characters such as conflict and other emotional elements.