Verbal Folklores and Cultural Transmission Through African Indigenous Languages

Abstract

Every society has forms of folklore which contain the indigenous knowledge of people where such resources are produced. The folkloric forms are verbal and non-verbal, customary and material that transfer thoughts, beliefs, feelings, perceptions and cultural practices of traditional Africans of successive generations. In this study an attempt was made to examine the major types of verbal folklore as means of communicating African customs and traditions through indigenous languages where such materials are produced. The paper also explored the effort made by African writers in preserving folklore forms through their literary works. The researchers argued that through linguistic resources like folktales, folksongs, folkmusic, dances, myths, legends, oral history, riddles, proverbs, chants and incantations, superstitious beliefs, and so on, African cultural heritages are being preserved and transmitted and the main channel of communication is the language, an integral part of culture. Folklore materials whether verbal or non-verbal are property of the community from primordial era and so there is no authorship.