"Folklore is, therefore, tradition based, collectively held, orally transmitted, and a source of cultural identity. When looked at closely, it can be deduced that folklore defines the people's norms and taboos on the use of resources: when to use, what to use, and how to use them."
~Peter Wasamba, "Conservation for Sustainable Development: The Unexplored Potential of Kenyan Folklore"
From both reading Benjamin's "The Storyteller" and looking ahead to the upcoming visit of Peter Wasamba, I decided to research a little more on oral literature, and I am amazed as some of my findings. The above quote from Wasamba was included in this essay which sought to explore the role of folklore in the promotion of indigenous environmental conservation in Kenya, and how Western influence and the decline of oral literature due to such influences has not only destroyed the value of oral literature, but also begun a destruction of the nation's biodiversity and sustainable development.
In a nutshell, it goes like this: the myths and legends of the African people have served for centuries as "practical ecological, socio-economic, and spiritual functions. Emotional ties with nature and legends are two of the most powerful incentives to conserve and respect forests [and the land]" (Wasamba 2). Living in direct contact with the land day in and day out, the people knew it intimately and therefore knew how to care for and preserve it. But in walked Western civilization, who spread (or imposed?) both Christianity and their "modern" environmental planning to the African nations. They viewed the indigenous ecological belief systems as "backwards" and started their own system of land "preservation," and as the people's religious beliefs changed, they themselves "disintegrated the traditions on which the folklores were based" (Wasamba 4).
And the result has been bordering on the disastrous: land is eroding, and violence is breaking out as a result of the loss of bio-diversity which has exposed people to chronic poverty.
All because folklore was taken away.
I have heard of this before... not only from Africa, but also Asia and South America, too. We, the "civilized" West, have conquered their land, and in an effort to "civilize" the people and the land, we have not taken into account the richness of the indigenous people's knowledge of the land that they have so long lived in harmony with and preserved far longer than we could imagine. Because their folklore is so tied to nature and how to care for it, they knew how to use the land... and, in effect, love it. But that was contrary to the scientific rules we set up as Westerners to care for land. As Christianity spread through the land, the death of traditional religious beliefs and practices that supported indigenous conservation initiatives was accelerated, as these practices again were looked upon as heathen and "backwards."
This brings up a few issues for me: first off, the importance of oral literature. In my last post, I talked about oral literature and the storyteller vs. the novelist, as spoken of in Benjamin's "The Storyteller." And I wasn't entirely sold on his assessment of the two. But after reading Wasamba's article, I can see the importance... even the need... for oral literature. Not only does it preserve the history of a people, but as seen above, it preserves the land and way of life of a people. And I actually find that fact alone quite fascinating. The literature of the West may preserve history and ways of life, but I don't recall much of it being so tied to the land in its stories that it promotes environmental safety (a big issue now because we have been "destroying" our earth while we advance in technology, etc.).
Second, I wonder what this says about Christianity and Western civilizations. As Christians, we are called to be good stewards of our resources. But we chose to ignore (is that what we did?) the richness of the indigenous people's lives and stories, even pronouncing them as heathen (in the end, perhaps not being good stewards of the land). And in doing so, we have made them ashamed of their heritage (is this what we have done?), which in turn has made them forget the stories that have preserved the land (i.e. "be good stewards" of the land in our Western Christianized terms). To be honest, this makes me angry. Who were (are) we to do that, esp. without first seeing the goodness in their own ways of life?
I'm looking forward to Wasamba's lectures on Monday... I am anxious to hear more about oral literature in such societies, and anxious to see if I can reconcile my discomfort with my Western history and Wasamba's illumination of the importance of recapturing the essence of folklore...
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