Don canvasses revitalization of the art of storytelling
The government at both state and local levels should see to the revitalization of the art of storytelling by incorporating the oral delivery of traditional tales and stories into the school curriculum.
A Professor of African, Oral and Biblical literature, Prof. Mark Ighile, made this recommendation while delivering the 13th Inaugural Lecture of Benson Idahosa University with the title ‘The Poet-Prophetic voice in the wilderness of our time: An oral, literary and biblical prognosis’.
According to him, in the revitalization of the art of storytelling, professional storytellers should be commissioned to go around schools, especially at the primary level, in order to narrate important tales to pupils in these schools with a view to producing morally strong future leaders that we will all be proud of. He added that there is also a need for all stakeholders to draw attention to the fact that literature and religion are crucial parts of the culture of a given people.
The University don further added that there should be a reawakening of the cultural heritage of contemporary Nigerian society. He lamented that social media is fast spreading a subversion of African traditions, and it becomes increasingly important to counterbalance this trend with the art of storytelling.
He further added that oral and biblical literature is now faced with a scarcity of relevant reading materials.
In his words: “African, Oral and Biblical literature is faced with at least two basic problems: relative scarcity of relevant reading materials and the fact that most available works and documentations especially those authored by critics who have commanding orientations towards Western theories or proponents of Western theories and their African adherents are believed by many to be fraught with contestable assumptions.”
Furthermore, he mentioned that the complexity of the definition of oral literary teaching is another challenge.
“Another challenge facing oral literary teaching and research in Africa is the string of complexities in the definition of its boundaries. The oral literary materials are essentially the same for anthropology, folklore, oral history, traditional music, and other components of oral tradition.
According to him, it can be argued that oral literature’s interdisciplinary existence has further compounded the problem of working out a set of critical criteria that would help to distinguish it from other studies.”
He recommended that oral arts, especially storytelling, should be revived and given adequate attention to counterbalance the growing influence of cyberculture.