AAS 535-01 African and African American Folklore

CRN: 25167

Wednesday 5:00-7:30 p.m.

McPheeters Dennis 125

Fall Semester 2013

Andre E. Key, PhD

E-mail:

Phone: 706-821-8249

Rationale

The unity of the folklore and traditional expressions of the various parts of the African World arises out of the strength of the oral transmissions of African people and the breadth of their diasporic spread in the world. This survey will show similarities and differences among the different parts of the African world and some of the manifestations of folklore and folklife. The principal characteristics of the social settings in which the orature finds expression, and the African aesthetics which have persisted for centuries will all be examined during this course.

African folklore is self-determinative, practical, entertaining, informative and pedagogical in the original settings in which it occurred. Public and intimate spheres of African societies contain festival and more reflective recognitions of special moments and annual occurences.

Traditional lore and learning were often the only possessions apart from language that Africans were permitted to bring with them in the enforced migrations to the Americas as captive laborers. The culture, learned orally in many instances, was their only "letter from home" to help in their adaptation to new circumstances.

In spite of the ignorance and injustices of the tabula rasa theory , the obvious and harsh maneuvers to deculturate Africans and the wilful lack of understanding of African languages and cultures, an undeniable aesthetic sense of artistic reaffirmation of their own cultural values survived. The folk culture, including utterance, symbolic representation, decorational arts and domestic artistic crafts, has persisted to the present and is now undergoing a revival which honors the "dark past", the durability of the people and their customs as well as the social relationships that have helped to insure their survival.

The course will include: (1)examination of stories and other literary forms of African and African American folk tradition, (2)treatment of African folklife and its analogues in African American life as a background to the oral and written literary forms examined, (3)slide lectures on African and African American artistic crafts and culture to provide a visual sense of what may be in the ambiance of the characters in the stories (4) demonstrations of African and African American traditional music such as the children's games ,which have a literature of their own, among other cultural phenomena.

African American folklore is an unique cultural phenomenon carrying contributions in its stream from African, European and Native American sources. It contained the methods of education, transmittal of culture and the preserving of the identity and solidarity of Afro-Americans such as they could enjoy in adverse circumstances. Often hidden from sight, these stories and songs have sustained enslaved Africans pressed hard in situations not of their own making. The escape motifs, the humorous stories which lampoon the "master" and his family and the hopes for another (possibly African) and better world exhibit a strength of spirit and mind that inspires and informs new generations. There is a need to understand it and the people who generated it as it comprised the survival and mental health of the group. Its purpose and significance were very serious and not illustrated by the all too well known works of Joel Chandler Harris which might have us think that imaginative and expressive productions of African Americans were completely represented by animal tales that were circulated around the globe. The course will examine African and African American, traditional lore employing methods of folklore scholarship including communication theory, structure within the stories, content, style and other constituent elements in order to understand better the material contained in them and the literature which derives from them.

African and African American

Folklore Lecture Topics:

Introduction to Folklore as a discipline

Function
Theories

communication
structural theories of narrative
type and motif with a short paper due.
literary reconstructions vs. oral transmission

Students will do a short paper analyzing one African and one African American tale contrasting the literary form with the field collected form.

Areas of the African World

Continental Africa

B. Diasporic Africa

1. Caribbean

2. Afro-North America

III. African Roots

Oral literature
culture areas of African continent
strength of oral tradition in culture

History and documentation
Education
Entertainment

folk stories
epic recitals
chant song

integration of these oral elements
appropriate timing
solidarity and integration of the group

African American heritage from European sources

stories such as fairytales from Europe
feeding into the stream with African, Native American sources

C. African American becomes unique new cultural heritage with this combination

Purpose:

The purpose of this course is to introduce the students to the folklore and life of Africans and African Americans. Much of the folklore is representative of older rural times in such African American communities as the Sea Islands of the U.S, as well as the more modern urban lore with which they are much more acquainted. It is to be hoped that after this course, they will have a better understanding of themselves and their forebears as well as the length and breadth of the oral lore of Africans wherever they may have been.

Goals:

To help the students understand the possibilities and power of a society in oral transmission. To help the students comprehend the workings of oral lore in the building of literature, customs, governance, land ownership, genealogies etc. To make it possible for them to know that literature was not originally written down and that their own rap follows a long tradition.

Expected Results:

The students will be enabled to see where their popular culture/oral lore fits in the total context of the African World; they will be able to understand more of their own culture, its strength and durability.

Structure:

The course will consist of lectures, discussions, short and long papers, midterm and final exams and/or presentations of final papers.

Requirements:

Regular attendance is important and is required of all students. Four short papers and one long paper will be required of each student, involving library research as well as a midterm examination. A final exam may be required at the discretion of the professor who also reserves the right to alter the requirements of the course at any time.

VI Course Outline

8/21 Introduction, The concept of folklore: issues and problems in an Africana Studies context. Framework for understanding. Basics of folklore-typing and motifing. Concept of “orature”

8/28 Read Okpewho chapters 1 and 2, Read The Two Brothers (online) Lecture on monomythic theory, Lord Raglan and their expressions in ancient African literature Suggested reading: Miriam Lichtheim Vols I,II,III, for texts of ancient Egyptian writings. Learn how to use them by typing and motifing some African and African American tales. Literary reconstruction vs oral transmission

9/4 Folklore theories communications, structural; Read Dundes “Folk&Lore” Read: Okpewho 3 and 4

9/11 Read Okpewho chaps 5 and 6

9/18 Read Sundiata(online), Okpewho 7-9

9/25 Apply monomyth and Raglan to African material. Finish reading Okpewho.

10/2 Tricksters- Discussion on roles of trickster , shapeshifters, animals--masking.

10/9 Caribbean and African American cultural transmission: genes or rhizomes? Read Levine 1-3. Read Dundes: “On Origins”

10/16 Diaspora Verbal Arts: Music and Language-games. Read: Dundes: “Folk Speech” and Levine “4-5

10/23 Singing, Laughing and Crying: Folk Music and Humor

Read: Dundes: “Folk Music”, “Folk Humor”

10/30 Folk Religion:

Read: Chireau Black Magic

11/6 Midterm Examination Provide a structural analysis and tale typing of an African tale. Also myth analysis.

11/13 Continue Folk Religion,

11/20 Black Folk Narratives, Heroes, and Mythology

Read: Dundes: “Folk Narrative”, Levine ch. 6

11/27 Thanksgiving Break

12/4 Class End

Required Texts:

Yvonne Chireau, Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition

Alan Dundes, Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel: Readings in the Interpretation of Afro-American Folklore.

Lawrence W. Levine, Black Culture and Black Consciousness: afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom

Isidore Okpewho, African Oral Literature.

The Two Brothers (online)

VIII Course Evaluation

Students will be required to hand in four short papers at 5% each and one long one at 20%. In class attendance, discussion and demonstration of comprehension of the readings, to be documented by the professor in class by taking evaluative notes, will count for 20%. In addition they will have a midterm exam at 20%. The professor reserves the right to have a final exam at 20%(or count that toward the presentations of the papers in Nov 29 class) as well as change the syllabus at any time during the semester.