Consciousness And The Tale In Africa

The tale demonstrates keen awareness of man and his environment.   The tale is a narrative like the modern short story.  It is not merely a narrative which tells a story but it has its grammar of discourse – form, rules, elements and structure.  It uses the wisdom acquired in the world to explicate issues about men, women, children and their relations.  It expresses these in Africa through Africa worldview.

The tale is set in either the world of man or the animal world.  The time may be in the morning, afternoon, evening or at night. The undefined framework of time gives the tale an enduring relevance to man in society.  Although it is set in the past, the lesson is always in the present.

The tale may be narrated in ten minutes or much more.  It depends on the type of tale and the narrator.  It is expected that the narrator hands down the tale as received from his predecessor to the audience without distortion but the mobility of the tale could be responsible for variants of it; this factor may influence the duration of narration.

  The tale has a form.  It is set in the past which is made clear through the formulaic opening ‘once upon a time’, ‘once in the animal kingdom’ and similar stock phrases. Any of these signals the beginning of the tale.  The audience is expected to respond ‘timer’ or use a similar term.  Narrator and audience are ready at this stage of co-operation for the tale to be told.  The audience listens silently from this time until there is a verbal signal for participation.

  The narrator situates his tale with a problem, a puzzle, a need or a quest for something.  This may be done with an initial crisis which develops into further crises until the end – the problem is solved or there is an answer to the puzzle.  The tale looks simple but on careful examination it is not an accidental brain work but a simple-complex form of narrative which Chinwezu, Jemie and Madubuike in Towards The Decolonisation of African Literature assert that it is not only a good work of literature but a form of Oral Literature comparable to the novel.  The latter is lengthier but the former demonstrates the important aspects of the modern novel.

  The formulaic opening,  setting, initial crisis, its development, call and response technique, constitute narratology (Propp’s Coinage) or the grammar of discourse.    These are rules which the narrator follows in simple tales; there are more sophisticated variants of the structure in epics and legends which are the ones that are lengthier.

There are different types of the tale. A set is about young girls or ladies who are taught how to relate to their parents, their roles in their homes, in their traditional schools and, their parents’ professions.  They are taught to work very hard every where they find themselves.

They are taught respectability – they should respect their elder sisters, brothers and younger ones.  They should respect their fathers and mothers who fend for them.  They are made to know that respect helps to place them in good relations with others.

     The older ones are taught to give polite answers to their suitors knowing that there are different men who act differently; some do not take rejection kindly.  They are taught that inner most conviction should guide them although few may insist on materialism; good parents insist on character. Any man who has money to fend for a woman is regarded as a wise suitor not someone who has no money but believes that manna will fall from heaven.  Girls who insist on materialism as the first principle of selection have suffered; spirits have married some of them for hinging their choices on materialism or for disobeying their parents.

The tale accounts for duplicity in polygamous homes where tricks and manoeuvres are used to outwit one another. The arrogant wife who steals away the husband’s heart from the other women is criticised, lampooned and ostracised from their meetings.  If she repents she is accepted back into the society.  Abuse is used as a minor means of correction.

  There are sad instances about the poisoning of children or preventing them from obtaining valuable things through manipulation.  There are also instances when the trickster motif does not work; it boomerangs on perpetrators of crimes. One instance is the occasion in which a woman prepares food for her son and the children of a late co-wife. The orphans go to visit their aunt who feeds them.  Their brother offers them food to eat on their return home; they thank him, adding that they have eaten in their aunt’s house.  They give their brother the permission to eat the food.  He eats and wails few minutes after.  The mother returns to find the irony of the situation; she rushes out with the son to seek medication; the son dies at the end.  This story is told in Bali’s Tarok Folktales. This consciousness of problems in polygamous homes is set in the past.  Is there now complete redemption in the contemporary world?  The consciousness of the tale does not undergo metamorphosis in the contemporary period rather complexity and new phases of the situation emerge.

     In the tale world people and animals compete for prizes and awards.  Weaker ones like tortoise, hare or fox win using wit to overcome the tougher and stronger ones like elephant and lion.  Smart men who lose make weaker ones give their prizes to them; they regain them through judicial process.  The verisimilitude of the tale does not lack reality when situated in the world of men; it is a world of wit, people are engaged in the politics of prominence; not all win.  Tortoise wins in a competition with lion in building houses of the same type and size.  How does he do it being a weaker animal?   He tricks lion and his workers with music which is not an evil thing at all.   It is good to listen to music for relaxation, while at work and at home.  The problem in the context is that of doing the right thing at the wrong time, singing and dancing without working.  Tortoise’s workers listen to the music; lion and his workers abandon their work to their consternation hours later.  Tortoise and his workers complete their work ahead of lion and his team.  This story is told in Saro-Wiwa’s The  Singing Anthill.

  Traditional government is narrated in different ways. One instance is from Adedeji’s The Stories My Mother Told Me about the means of selecting a successor after the king’s death.  The King does it himself asking two brothers to go into the forest to bring a special flower; the first would be made king.  The younger one finds it; in his excitement discloses it to the younger one who kills him and takes away his flower.  He runs home and gives the flower to the father who asks after his brother.  He refuses to tell him that he is dead. He lies and tells him he found his clothes in the forest and that he could have been killed by a carnivorous animal.  The king is not satisfied; he sends a hunter to bring back the corpse; he finds it and takes a bone and blows it; it sings and narrates the story of the death.  The father becomes angry and orders the elder brother to be killed.

The sad story offers insight into the lives of the brothers and the consciousness associated with governance. The murderer reasons that if he succeeds in killing his brother, he would become king; his status will change.  This is a continuous consciousness associated with economic and political power.

  The last example shows the dynamism of the tale.  There are many more instances which may not be cited here that have dynamic relevance to contemporary situations.  Insights into various aspects of life show the continuous consciousness of the tale in the modern world in several ways; the tale is re-told through the media to teach children and entertain them. The tale is used in modern literature books in several ways to demonstrate the consciousness of the past which dovetails with the consciousness of the contemporary world.  The tale is expanded and situated in every given period with economic and traditional items: manila, pound and naira are forms of money used at various times with historical reference to periods in Nigeria; these are found in the tale.  A careful reading of the tale shows marks of the past and the present as the tale evolves to meet various needs and captures the interest of various generations.

Ngaage is of the Department of English and Literary Studies, Faculty of Arts, Niger Delta University, Bayelsa State

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