Ndollane Dione
Université
Gaston Berger, Saint-Louis, Sénégal
Abstract
The way towards self and communal achievement is generally viewed as a
wilderness path paved away in African oral literature through legendary figures
moving across complex realities. Appearing
first as a response to an internal imbalance or spiritual need, the desire of
completeness extends in a physical world where its impatient imperialism is subjugated
by time and hindered by antinomic forces[1].
From this antinomy springs the quest which is valued with reference to
difficulties characters are expected to come across. There lays the terrible
battle ground, the theatre of merciless internal and external confrontation,
marked of sacrifices and formulas that empower the tragic self. This severe hardship experience stands as a
non-stop initiation process that moves progressively until the whole discovery
and achievement of the questing being preceded by self-annihilation. In that
beyond the abstract speculation about education and society, it becomes praxis
practical action for metamorphosis. This step corresponds to an enlightenment
situation that engenders a remapping of the environment around, which is very often
gifted by triumph over inimical forces. Soyinka presents this process in Yoruba
mythology through what he terms as the “the passage-rites of hero-gods, a
projection of man’s conflict with forces which challenge his efforts to
harmonize with his environment, physical, social and psychic[2].”
From this achievement occurs in traditional African society the canonization of
heroes, as the embodiment of core values shaped and assessed in oral genres through
the travelling protagonist, on the road of deadly obstacles, often under the
appearance of strange forms, including supernatural and fantastic
manifestations.
Accordingly, the value of trip stands in
the significance of self-achievement as an existential experience set within
and between cosmic powers painted through a world of symbols out of the
ordinary and yet highly vivid. Trip becomes the human essence moving throughout
cosmic forces that stand as a way for self-accomplishment, which is the major meaning
of life. Both Kaidara and The Choice of a Ori are stories of African oral
heritage presenting heroes who are expected to explore humanity through the
gates of physic and metaphysic arena. They respectively belong to Peulh and
Yoruba cultures, stand as some oral art material transmitted through
generations and are told by literary figures. Centered on this varied material,
this paper aims at examining the similarities and differences of trip
resonances in these stories, through characterization, time and space, in a
perspective of reviewing the rich parallelism of art forms from different
cultures. A major task of this work is to locate the accomplishment of human
being, society and Africa in general within the symbolism of trip as quest in
oral art’s creative impulse.
Key words: Ori, Kaidara, trip,
self-accomplishment, creative impulse
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