Fireplace Folktales from Ankole

Abstract

The folktale is an oral literary genre that can be described as "an ancient short story." It is set in an antique world where trees, animals, and people all talk and understand one another. The olden world of the folktale is very strange, and it is filled with weird and wonderful happenings. It was a form of informal education that took place in the days before the introduction of formal education. In those days, young children would gather around the fireplace and listen to the elders, who would narrate folktales and fables, taking their audiences through riddling sessions, all aimed at inculcating morals in the minds of the youths. The folktales in this book are primarily meant for enjoyment and for the moral uplifting of young children. Teachers of language and literature can also use them for aural comprehension and as a stepping stone to the introduction of literature at the lower secondary school level, and of course scholars of literature, and oral literature in particular, can utilize these folktales in their analyses of the narrative form of the genre. The book is a manifestation of the author's effort towards cultural preservation. Fireplace folktales from Ankole were collected, transcribed, and translated by the author. The transcriber tried as much as possible to retain the original form; that is why the reader will hear a version of English that is more localized than globalized. This is done in order to enhance the originality of the genre. Remember the fireplace tales you may once have heard and aim to tell them to your own children.