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AOL811S - AFRICAN ORAL LITERATURE - 1ST OPP - JUNE 2022 |
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nAmlBIA UnlVERSITY
OF SCIEnCE Ano TECHnOLOGY
FACULTY OF COMMERCE, HUMAN SCIENCE AND EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION
QUALIFICATION: BACHELOR OF ENGLISH AND LINGUISTICS (HONOURS)
QUALIFICATION CODE: 08BAEN
COURSE CODE: AOL811S
LEVEL: 8
COURSE NAME: AFRICAN ORAL LITERATURE
SESSION: JUNE 2022
DURATION: 3H00
PAPER: THEORY
MARKS: 100
FIRST OPPORTUNITY EXAMINATION QUESTION PAPER
EXAMINER(S) DR. ALETTA MWENENI HAUTEMO
MODERATOR: DR. L. NAMASEB
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Read all the questions carefully before answering.
2. Number the answers clearly
3. Give essay type responses where necessary
4. Use blue or black ink only
THIS QUESTION PAPER CONSISTS OF 5 PAGES (Including this front page)
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1. MATCHING QUESTION
(7 marks)
Link the following terms to their corresponding statement. Write down only the
number of the question and the symbol (1) - (A).
A Trickster Tales
1. Explains how something came to be and it usually
explains something in nature
B Fables
2. Statements that contain superficial words, but they
function figuratively and as metaphors, and are in
the form of questions
C Fairy tales
3. Causes problems for the other characters
D Myths
4. Often contain a quest, romance, and adventure
E Proverb
G Riddle
5. Deal with human relationships with the gods, gods'
relationships with each other and human struggle
with good and evil.
6. Animal characters with human characteristics.
H Pourquoi Stories 7. express broader truth, it often uses metaphors.
2. Discuss the difference between a legend and an epic story
(6 marks)
3. Put the name of the actantial function most clearly associated with the words
before the parentheses. There is only one answer in each case. All six functions
are represented.
(12 marks)
Paul ,._ _____
_, asks Mary ,._ _____
~-----~
_______
to obtain some information
_,, and which Paul (
_, to use her charm
concealed by Peter
can sell at a high price.
4. Read the following folktale and thereafter discuss the social functions of Oral
narratives in the African culture and how they can be used to groom the young
African. Illustrate with examples from the folktale below.
(25 marks)
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There was once a king who was very powerful. He had great influence over the wild beasts
and animals. Now the tortoise was looked upon as the wisest of all beasts and men. This king
had a son named Ekpenyon, to whom he gave fifty young girls as wives, but the prince did not
like any of them. The king was very angry at this and made a law that if any man had a
daughter who was finer than the prince's wives, and who found favour in his son's eyes, the
girl herself and her father and mother should be killed. Now about this time the tortoise and
his wife had a daughter who was very beautiful. The mother thought it was not safe to keep
such a fine child, as the prince might fall in love with her, so she told her husband that her
daughter ought to be killed and thrown away into the bush. The tortoise, however, was
unwilling, and hid her until she was three years old. One day, when both the tortoise and his
wife were away on their farm, the king's son happened to be hunting near their house, and
saw a bird perched on the top of the fence round the house. The bird was watching the little
girl and was so entranced with her beauty that he did not notice the prince coming. The prince
shot the bird with his bow and arrow, and it dropped inside the fence, so the prince sent his
servant to gather it. While the servant was looking for the bird, he came across the little girl,
and was so struck with her form, that he immediately returned to his master and told him what
he had seen. The prince then broke down the fence and found the child and fell in love with
her at once. He stayed and talked with her for a long time, until at last she agreed to become
his wife. He then went home but concealed from his father the fact that he had fallen in love
with the beautiful daughter of the tortoise.
But the next morning he sent for the treasurer and got sixty pieces of cloth and three hundred
rods and sent them to the tortoise. Then in the early afternoon he went down to the tortoise's
house and told him that he wished to marry his daughter. The tortoise saw at once that what
he had dreaded had come to pass, and that his life was in danger, so he told the prince that if
the king knew, he would kill not only himself (the tortoise), but also his wife and daughter. The
prince replied that he would be killed himself before he allowed the tortoise and his wife and
daughter to be killed. Eventually, after much argument, the tortoise consented, and agreed to
hand his daughter to the prince as his wife when she arrived at the proper age. Then the prince
went home and told his mother what he had done. She was in great distress at the thought
that she would lose her son, of whom she was very proud, as she knew that when the king
heard of his son's disobedience, he would kill him. However, the queen, although she knew
how angry her husband would be, wanted her son to marry the girl he had fallen in love with,
so she went to the tortoise and gave him some money, clothes, yams, and palm-oil as further
dowry on her son's behalf in order that the tortoise should not give his daughter to another
man. For the next five years the prince was constantly with the tortoise's daughter, whose
name was Adet, and when she was about to be put in the fatting house, the prince told his
father that he was going to take Adet as his wife. On hearing this the king was very angry and
sent word all round his kingdom that all people should come on a certain day to the
marketplace to hear the palaver. When the appointed day arrived, the marketplace was quite
full of people, and the stones belonging to the king and queen were placed in the middle of
the market-place.
When the king and queen arrived all the people stood up and greeted them, and they then sat
down on their stones. The king then told his attendants to bring the girl Adet before him. When
she arrived, the king was quite astonished at her beauty. He then told the people that he had
sent for them to tell them that he was angry with his son for disobeying him and taking Adet
as his wife without his knowledge, but that now he had seen her himself he had to
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acknowledge that she was very beautiful, and that his son had made a good choice. He would
therefore forgive his son.
When the people saw the girl they agreed that she was very fine and quite worthy of being the
prince's wife, and begged the king to cancel the law he had made altogether, and the king
agreed; and as the law had been made under the "Egbo" law, he sent for eight Egbos, and
told them that the order was cancelled throughout his kingdom, and that for the future no one
would be killed who had a daughter more beautiful than the prince's wives, and gave the Egbos
palm wine and money to remove the law, and sent them away. Then he declared that the
tortoise's daughter, Adet, should marry his son, and he made them marry the same day. A
great feast was then given which lasted for fifty days, and the king killed five cows and gave
all the people plenty of foo-foo and palm-oil chop and placed a large number of pots of palm
wine in the streets for the people to drink as they liked. The women brought a big play to the
king's compound, and there was singing, and dancing kept up day and night during the whole
time. The prince and his companions also played in the market square. When the feast was
over the king gave half of his kingdom to the tortoise to rule over, and three hundred slaves to
work on his farm. The prince also gave his father-in-law two hundred women and one hundred
girls to work for him, so the tortoise became one of the richest men in the kingdom. The prince
and his wife lived together for some good many years until the king died, when the prince ruled
in his place. And all this shows that the tortoise is the wisest of all men and animals.
5. Compare and contrast the structure, performance and social functions of proverbs
and riddles in a culture of your own choice. Illustrate with examples. (25 marks)
6. Read the following poems and answer the question below:
(25
marks)
Praise poems have several social functions. Analyse the three poems and show how
they portray the four social functions listed below:
a. recording the stages of life
b. entertainment and relaxation
c. asserting interests and outlooks
d. teaching ideals and conduct.
1.
Birth
Welcome, child, into the world!
May good fortune attend us.
Be wide awake in the morning
May good fortune attend us.
Be wide awake in the afternoon
May good fortune attend us.
But go to sleep in the evening
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May good fortune attend us.
(Ogbalu 1974:31)
2.
Chant in praise of Sunjata by Gambian griot Bamba Susa:
Ah, mighty war king,
A man who likes making deserted villages,
Many great matters have passed from the world.
Ah, you have an army.
you seize, you slay.
Maambira Konnate, fighting goes well with you.
(Innes 1974:63)
3.
A song from the Kikuyu (Kenya)
On Friday as I was coming from work,
I was thinking I was being waited for to go and eat
but my heart was deceiving me __ listen and you will hear.
When I got home there was nobody,
at her parents' home there was nobody.
I ran very, very fast to a nearby river----
and there my wife was talking to her lover.
I had thought getting married was good.
I sat and thought, and tears came out.
girls will never be trusted ever,
men are always to be trusted, always.
(Liyong 1972: 132)
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