Africa is a vast and often misunderstood continent with over fifty
independent nations, more than 1,000 languages, and even more ethnic
groups than languages. This course is designed to acquaint students
with the basic forms of African folklore south of the Sahara, and
with how these traditions influence the larger cultural matrix which
produces them.  An attempt is made in this class to give the student
both an intellectual and an experiential understanding of the
traditions of the continent. Thus a mixture of lectures, class
discussions, and media are included in the course, which will consist
of four units, beginning with an introduction to the peoples and
languages of Africa and to the discipline of folkloristics. A second
unit on oral prose forms will include sections on folktales and
legends. A third unit on oral poetry and its influence on African
cultural behavior will include sections on the roles of heroic and
political poetries in African social organizations. A discussion of
music will be an integral part of this unit, as music is an integral
part of poetry in Sub-Saharan Africa, often with ethnic groups making
no aesthetic difference between these two forms of expression. The
unit will also include mention of panegyric, elegiac, religious and
drum poetries in African social organizations. The social role of the
poet and the political use of poetry will also be covered. The unit
will conclude with a discussion of the multifarious uses of proverbs
in African societies. The fourth unit on gestural, customary, and
material folklore will deal with such topics as folk dance; the
serious and entertaining use of gaming behavior; religious and
secular roles of wood carving; and the whole economic complex
surrounding weaving guilds. Finally, the course will conclude with a
discussion on the total effect of all these traditions on the larger
cultural matrix of African social behavior through the formation of
worldview or weltanschauung.  Two exams and a final will be
administered in this class. Each exam counts 30% of the course grade,
and the final 40% for a total of 100%. Students will be responsible
on exams for all assigned readings and for materials covered in the
lectures.