On December, 31, 1963, one of the Founding Fathers of the Republic of Kenya, the late Tom Mboya, expressed the need to provide the children of Kenya with African folk tales that instil basic moral values and concepts in them.
He expressed his concerns that children were introduced to European folklore in their formative years instead of African folklore.
“The educational system and the teaching received in the schools during colonial days were …designed to belittle African tradition and customs and replace them with habits and attitudes developed in Western Europe. The folk stories, rhymes and jingles of African society were neglected in primary schools. Instead, the wholly inappropriate fairy tales and verse of an alien culture were imported at an early age. The mind of children was confused by having to cope with Zeus and Saturn instead of Ngai or Lwanda Magere, with King Arthur instead of Gor Mahia or Odera Okang’o; with Thor and Heyda instead of Gikuyu na Mumbi; with bears and wolves instead of lions and giraffes,” Mboya noted in a speech at Kisumu New Year’s Eve 1964.
Policymakers accordingly took the advice. In 1981—some forty-four years ago—African Folk Literature was formally introduced in the then “O” level and “A” level education under the then 7.4.2.3 system of education.
Mboya would have been all too happy to see the incorporation of African Folklore in the curriculum had he been alive. Regrettably, he had died, some 12 years earlier, in 1969, at the hands of an assassin.
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It was his argument that folklore is embedded in society. It plays an important part in inculcating basic moral and social concepts in the mind of the child.
As I have already indicated, Mboya would be happy with the introduction of African folklore in the school system. However, he is likely to express serious concerns with how we have handled it in schools that were alive at the time it was formally introduced.
This is why.
Mboya envisioned a system of education which introduced folk tales (not Oral literature in the technical sense) at the earliest possible stages of schooling. It is at the earliest stages of schooling that education systems introduce folklore to children. Societies use folklore to make children learn about their immediate environment and, through it, the values and morals that shape the societies.
In preliterate Africa, children learned folklore when they were still young—through their grandmothers, mothers and elder siblings. In literate societies such as the West, children not only learned folklore from their parents, but also from their early years of learning.
The colonial system of education was introduced to Western folklore at primary school levels, not at secondary school levels.
Mboya first interacted with the heroes in western folklore, he mentioned in his speech— Zeus, Saturn, King Arthur, Thor and Heyda—at primary school and not at secondary school level. He would be surprised that children in primary schools are not exposed to African folklore in whatever form—through class readers or folklore saturating comprehension exercises in English, Kiswahili or social studies.
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Secondly, the stories were written in simple language—almost conversational in nature. The educators didn’t contaminate the stories with technical words or phrases about the different categories or formats of the tales associated with the study of Literature at the secondary school level. Performance or delivery was not the issue. The issue was the storyline and endless moral insights in the tale. It is folklore.
Thirdly, Mboya didn’t envisage that the study of African Folklore would either be subject to an examination or that it would be optional. All learners were obligated to learn or read it because the values and attitudes the folklore instils in the learners are not optional. Every child and adult needs to appreciate and vicariously live the values, aspirations, empathies and ideas that play out in folklore.
Fourthly, oral Literature is introduced arguably too late in the life of the learner to have any meaningful impact beyond meeting the dynamics of an examinable subject in KCSE.
By the age of 14 or 15, the learner has gone through so much—he has gone through storms and formed certain habits and moral persuasions. Oral literature at this point is for mental and not moral development. It is, however, impactful in the initial stages of schooling—Preprimary and grades one to five. At this age, children are impressionable. It is during this stage of learning that African folklore—reflecting the child’s cultural context—ought to be introduced.
In the same way European folklore was introduced to learners during the colonial period, African folklore should be introduced to children in lower grades, for fun and not for examination purposes.
The most distressing part of the introduction of Oral Literature—lamentably late in the learners—is that educators eliminated European folklore from the curriculum altogether.
Mboya didn’t say that a post-independence education system should remove European folklore from schools.
He argued that it was after exposing the pupil to his folklore that the children could safely be “taught a set of attitudes and social values which do not fit with the traditional ways.” That was Mboya’s argument in the 1963 speech at Kisumu.
Were Mboya to wake up today, he would be upset with two things. He would be upset with the way he had handled African folklore by introducing it much later than he had envisaged. Those who were born in the early 60s can remember two things. First, we were introduced to African folklore by our grandmothers, mothers and elder siblings before we started formal schooling, and the exposure continued. Second, we came across European folklore through small books in the library in our respective primary schools. I learned about Greek and Roman myths and legends while at Lukume Primary School in the 70s. It was while at Lukume Primary school that I read about Daedalus and Icarus, King Midas, Remus and Romulus and many other legends. The primary schools still had in their library systems, throughout the 70s, books that our fathers and mothers read during the colonial era.
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Mboya’s generation and mine were exposed to two heritages: African folklore through informal education and European through formal education. The exposure occurred simultaneously.
It is for this reason that Mboya would be upset that educators abolished European folklore from schools altogether. At a time when there are cross-cultural migrations and movement of ideas—thanks to modern transport and communication technology—Mboya would be likely to be indignant that we have narrowed the mental and cultural horizons of our children.
Kenyan children ought to appreciate the cultures of other civilisations. There is no simpler way than by exposing European folklore to them. Just like we expose the written literature from the rest of the world to them, we should also expose European, Asian, native Americans and Aboriginal folklore to them.
There is an educational theory or philosophy in modern education called multiculturalism. This is an educational philosophy or thinking that appreciates the validity of the cultures of other civilisations, other than Western civilisation.
Children in grade schools in American and European Universities are being exposed to folklore and literature from African and Eastern European civilisations.
I have come across English and social studies texts used in American schools, which have African folklore and books by African writers like Chinua Achebe and Ngugi Wa Thiong’o.
We can similarly do the same. It is at the earliest stages of schooling where such knowledge can be imparted. Not in senior school, where learners have started to specialise.
By Kennedy Buhere
Kennedy Buhere is a Communication Specialist
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