Disruption of Traditional African Orature by Western Pop-Culture: the Need for Rejuvenation

Abstract

Traditional African Orature is fast declining in Nigeria due to globalization which is almost causing loss of identity. Hitherto, Children folklore has played prominent roles in Children Sociocultural development which should be rejuvenated. This study examined the causes of the decline among the basic School Teachers and Pupils. Five hundred (n=500) participants were randomly selected from rural schools for the study. In-depth interview guide and questionnaire were the instrument used to glean data. The study revealed that teachers and pupils were no longer motivated by the teaching and learning of traditional African orature which is largely due to Religious reasons, for students: (t=4.30,p<0.05) with mean score for Muslim (53.71) and Christian (56.83) and partly because of exposure to pop culture which is said to be more entertaining, electronically accessible and interesting which accounted for 26.2% of the total variance in displacing ATO(R² =0.262, P <0.05)). It becomes imperative to develop an improved African Oral Literature that can also be electronically accessible among other qualities.

Keywords: African,  Orature,  Pop-Culture,  Disruption,  Nigeria