FOLKTALES FROM THE KOM KINGDOM

By Ernest Timnge

Book Overview

African cultures, particularly the Kom oral tradition and culture, constitute the main backbone on which oral literature in Africa is developed and built. The Kom oral tradition is rich in performance. The most important thing about oral literature is that it provides entertainment for the audience and teaches important moral lessons through its performances.
For this genre of literature to survive the pressure that has been imposed upon it by the current computer global age and then progress for the next generation to have, a massive and aggressive effort is being made by different researchers and experts in the field of African oral tradition to collect, transcribe, translate, analyze and document this genre before it completely disappears from the world scene.
As a student who studied in a department of African literature, I feel obliged to join this crusade of the many African writers engaged in documenting this genre of literature for the next generation to see. This is a major contribution to research and, stories like the ones I have written will remain a working document for future students who will enroll in the department of African studies and literature anywhere.
The stories are original and are purely work of fiction. Some of the stories are based on true life experiences about things that happened in the past. The characters in the stories are also fictional. I have created various characters with certain specific missions to accomplish. The names that the characters in each story bear are fictional. Some names might coincide with real names but that is just a coincidence. There are many moral lessons to be learned from the stories and that is why I have posted some pertinent questions at the end of each story to be answered by you, my readers.
Before you start reading the stories, I would like you to bear in mind that literature does not exist in a vacuum. Literature is the result of real-life situations and experiences. Coming from a region that respects traditional norms and values, it is the Kom culture with which I identify. The Kom culture is my identity card and I carry it everywhere I go. It is the culture in which I grew up and have lived all my life. I learned these folk stories when I was growing up in the countryside. Back in those days, I remember specific times were reserved for storytelling only.
Usually, after we returned home from the farms, we sat by the fireside and, while roasting corn, we listened to stories being told by the elderly people who had mastered the oral tradition. These folk stories had been passed down by the previous generations. This age group used the moral lessons emanating from the stories to teach the young people in the village about good behavior in Kom society. Narrating these stories has been my passion and I have now written down these stories for fear that they could disappear completely in the computer age in place. Enjoy the stories of my culture.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B09YM1TCGG
• ISBN13: 9798808026674
• Release Date: June 2017
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 94 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"