The construction of gender through the narrative process of the African folktale: a case study of the Maragoli folktale

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to identify the gender-related themes from a cultural discourse in order to determine how gender is constructed in African society. The study specifically examines the Maragoli Folktale. The Maragoli people mainly inhabit the western part of Kenya and are a sub-tribe of the larger Luhyia community. The Luhyia community is the second largest community in Kenya.

The study attempts to uncover how gender is constructed through the examination of dominant themes, characterization, images, symbols, formulaic patterns and formalities of composition and performance in the Maragoli folktales at the time of performance.

Based on an eclectic conceptual framework, the study takes into consideration gender theories, feminist literary perspectives, psychoanalysis and discourse analysis paradigms to critically examine the tales as a semiotic system of signification grounded within an African social cultural milieu. The folktales are analysed as a symbolic and ideological discourse of signs encoded by the performer and decoded by the audience at the time of performance. The study therefore situates the tale firmly at the time of performance, taking into consideration the interaction between the performer and the audience in the dissemination and internalization of gender ideology.

While establishing that patriarchal structures and values are transmitted through the tales, the study also reveals the methods and interventions that the mainly female performers advance as active agents in their struggle for space within the culture. Women are, therefore, perceived as active agents of change and the folktale as a site from which gender ideology is discussed, contested and subverted.

The study is based on a corpus of twenty (20) folktales collected from the Maragoli country in Western Province of Kenya (See maps, Appendix B.) The English versions of the tales appear in appendix A.