Oral Literature and Igbo Folktales in Selected Works of Fredrick Ogbalu

Abstract

The oral traditions of every given people are imbedded in and conveyed by their oral literature, among other mechanisms. This study examines Igbo oral literature and selected Igbo folktales in Fredrick Ogbalu’s Nza na Obu and Mbediogu. The study is anchored on Robert’s Indigenous Existential Phenomenology Theory, which describes the existential connectivity among a society’s culture, and existential phenomena and systems making up its panorama, which must be upheld and consciously used, promoted, preserved and sustained across generations. Exploratory survey design and qualitative method are employed to analytically describe oral literature and folktales, particularly the selected Igbo folktales in Ogbalu’s selected works. The analysis involves interpretive devices, analytic description and text-content analysis. It reveals that oral literature plays a significant role in projecting, disseminating, preserving and sustaining a culture; folktales are major aspects of oral literature that play such role; and Ogbalu is a pioneer Igbo collector of folktales, who laid the foundation for modern Igbo written literature. The study concludes that oral literature and folktales educate and socialise the younger generations, foster sense of community, and preserve the culture of a people, such as the Igbo people of Southeast Nigeria. Among other recommendations, the study calls for sustained use, advancement, and teaching of oral literature and folktales among contemporary Igbo as well as other indigenous peoples across the globe.