Folklore of Sub-Saharan and South African peoples

Abstract

The paper dwells upon one of the peculiarities of Sub-Saharan African peoples’ folklore, which is the fact that, due to the unevenness of historical, social and cultural development of various regions, it is possible to trace the genesis and dynamics of a genre’s development in almost each and every genre category from the most archaic to its most developed examples. The author demonstrates this via an analysis of fairy tales, epics and legends, comparing African forms to classic European examples of the genres.