Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Note on transcription
- 1 Introduction: power, marginality and oral literature
- Part I Orality and the power of the state
- Part II Representing power relations
- 5 Ìgbò énwē ézè: monarchical power versus democratic values in Igbo oral narratives
- 6 Tales and ideology: the revolt of sons in Bambara—Malinké tales
- 7 Images of the powerful in Lyela folktales
- Part III Oral forms and the dynamics of power
- Part IV Endorsing or subverting the paradigms: women and oral forms
- Part V Mediators and communicative strategies
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - Tales and ideology: the revolt of sons in Bambara—Malinké tales
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Note on transcription
- 1 Introduction: power, marginality and oral literature
- Part I Orality and the power of the state
- Part II Representing power relations
- 5 Ìgbò énwē ézè: monarchical power versus democratic values in Igbo oral narratives
- 6 Tales and ideology: the revolt of sons in Bambara—Malinké tales
- 7 Images of the powerful in Lyela folktales
- Part III Oral forms and the dynamics of power
- Part IV Endorsing or subverting the paradigms: women and oral forms
- Part V Mediators and communicative strategies
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
If we may make general statements about the nature of West African tales or, more particularly, about the tales of the Bambara—Malinké group, we can say that they carry rather simple explicit ideological messages which conform to prevailing social norms. They show in most cases a protagonist acting against established laws of society and who will be punished accordingly. In fact the most productive narrative pattern found in the Bambara—Malinké corpus is based on misdeed followed by retribution, the latter being as serious as was the misdeed. An inventory of misdeeds occurring in the tales reveals the major internal conflicts that arise between members of the group. The degree of retribution inflicted upon those who transgress social norms is an indicator of the more or less coercive character of the norms concerned, as well as of the degree of tolerance with which they are enforced. However large the disparities may be, Bambara—Malinké tales are always about the confirmation and inculcation of the system of law, exemplifying for the narrator and his audience that anti-social conduct necessarily leads to the ruin of the transgressor.
It is worth mentioning here that the ideological messages carried by European tales, though similarly simple and conformist as to social norms, are differently formulated, since they are much more often conveyed by the positive hero.
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- Information
- Power, Marginality and African Oral Literature , pp. 83 - 91Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995
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