Environmental issues in selected Ganda Folktales

Abstract

This dissertation sets out to analyze the representation of the natural environment in the selected Ganda folktales, and to examine the literary techniques used in the selected tales to communicate environmental messages. I examined a total of ten folk tales from Buganda. The highlight of all these tales is the way humans are represented as depending on various elements of the natural environment for survival. In addition to obtaining food from the environment, there are many cases in which various elements of the natural environment save humans from death. Sometimes one has to climb a tree to be safe, or one has to hide in a rock. In cases where animals antagonize humans, animals are tolerated, while humans find ways of living with animals safely. There in no case in which elements of the environment are destroyed because humans find them troublesome.