Songs as performance strategies in six selected Ankole folktales

Abstract

This study critically analyses songs as performance strategies in the selected Ankole folktales. The study was both field and library-based, accompanied with various interactions with elders in Ankole who were very knowledgeable about the Ankole folktales. This study used performance theory to analyze it's data and the major tenet of the performance theory is that performance is the vessel through which a folktale comes to life. The study also notes that performance is a very important ingredient in the appreciation, preservation and transmission of folktales and these Folktales are seen as a source of entertainment and a medium of instruction that enhances the young children’s learning of the cultural values, customs and norms of their society. Folktales have special opening and closing formulae, which defer from one narrator to the other depending on their abilities to perform a folktale. The study findings reveal that at most all of Ankole's folktales contain songs and these songs were used to break boredom and wake up those who had started dosing off. They also added an aesthetic quality to the folktale a fact that made it more interesting and entertaining. The song was sung by the narrator while the audience listened. The words in the song could as well have been narrated, but they are sung for the purposes of entertainment and making the tale beautiful.