African Oral Tradition or "Orature" as it is called is a fascinating realm of African culture. Better known as the folktales of African culture, it is was a form of expression during times of oppression and times of joy. Orature became a way for Africans to pass on their heritage to each other, back when slave owners would try to suppress their heritage. It became not only recreation, but necessity to keep their entities so that they would never be lost.
Even more fascinating was that even in the darkest times that became a part of African history, these traditions kept a drive and willigness to survive for people. Forced into slavery and only the madness that could drive within a person, one could only imagine what most went through during these times. The one thing they held on to was the culture and the willigness of song and dance that created a spritualness and became an expression of the paths in which they traveled. Even though forms of expression that was came from African culture was forbidden, folk tales survived through the dark.
Oratures even became a way for different African cultures to tell stories of how the world began. The different aspects and views that sprouted from the cultures helped the storytellers pass on to their listeners the creation of earth. It also helped elders pass on their morals and traditions to younger beings, which could be again taught to others when they grew up.
Oratures developed with so much emotion and bursted with the excitement because back when Africans lacked the physical means or even the education to pass these stories, this what they had. Song, dance, gestures and acting in a way to convey the spirit of what was their past, present and future. It became an intense trip of knowing that if these stories were not passed, they would be lost forever. Hard to imagine that our past could be erased because our ability pass it on was limited. But for the African cultures the lived during the period before colonialism, it was a heartbreaking reality.
For more information:http://www.gwu.edu/~e73afram/ag-am-mp.html
http://www.helium.com/items/1104390-an-analysis-of-oral-tradition-in-african-music
Topic on how importance of drums and the relation to African orature:http://home.acceleration.net/clark/papervu/Rossiter.htm
For more pictures check: http://www.galenfrysinger.com/ghana_song_and_dance.htm
1 comment:
Those are some really good pictures that you found! It's amazing how the stories have been passed down from so many generations.
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