By Henry Akubuiro
Folk tale is a story originating in popular culture, typically passed on by word of mouth from generation to generation. In Africa, the Tortoise, the Lion, the Elephant, the Hyena, the King’s, the Princess/Prince, the Dog, and the Farmer are some of the popular archetypes.
With the traditional tales by moonlight almost a thing of the past, writers and content creators have resorted to writing books and digital platforms to recreate the often morale-laden African folk tales, the former to a very successful result. Dr. Bukar Usman, the President of Nigeria Folklore Society of , has been involved in the scribal project since 2005.
However, to recreate original tales generated from oral tradition, Usman lectured in his book, My Literary Journey (2013) that four ways were open to a writer to capture an oral folktale in writing: transliteration, translation, modification and adaptation. “To transliterate an oral tale means capturing its words using the letters of another alphabet. For instance, the Hausa warning, ‘Ba shiga’ strictly transliterated into English would read, ‘No Enter,’ or ‘No Entrance’ if loosely transliterated,” he wrote.
On the other hand, to translate an oral tale, meant rendering it using the words and idioms of a new language to make it textually meaningful to the hearer or reader of the new language. Also, “translation is not necessarily a word-for-word exercise. The above simple example, ‘Ba shiga’, could, in translation into English, be rendered as ‘No road’, ‘No passage’, ‘No thoroughfare’ or even, loosely, ‘Go back ‘.”
The legendary folklorist also said modification meant changing key elements of the original tale in order to infuse into it fresh elements, such as new characters or sub-plot. ‘Modification usually takes place when there is a need to amplify or modernise the folktale and build a bigger story out of it without losing the essence of the original tale.’
According to him, “it’s the process of modification that the short story writer, deriving his material from folklore, has a great deal of creative latitude. Indeed, modifying an oral tale from its oral source and retelling it in writing in another language is as creative as any short story writing effort can be.”
Furthermore, “Modification is not mere translation. It is a translation enhanced by additional information and the re-ordering of key elements of the original tale. Modification is an exercise in creative writing.”
Many of the stories in his three short story anthologies published in English – The Bride without Scar, The Stick of Fortune, and Girls in Search of Husbands – were modified versions of oral tales. “But the reader of these stories would easily see the modified versions written in English (and it could have been any other language) are more elaborate than their comparatively shorter and simpler oral versions, especially in terms of plot and characterisation. As for literary devices, modified and written forms of oral tales are stylistically very similar to the modern short story; in fact, they are modern short stories with traditional roots,” he affirmed.
Discussing adaptation, the former permanent secretary in the presidency said it entailed a change from the original language of the folktale to a new language, say, adapting a Biu folktale to a radio play into English.
He, however, noted that the writer was at liberty to combine two or more of the four methods he identified. As he said, “the creative writer inspired by folklore can only be limited by his own imagination. His creativity, rather than being hindered by tradition, can be enhanced by it” (p.31).