The Influence of Folktales on Early Ndebele Narratives: Incorporating folktale techniques to produce good narratives - Tapa blanda

The Influence of folktales on Ndebele narratives- examines the role played by orature in shaping the written narratives especially the narratives of people who are still engrossed in their oral art forms. This work observes that there is a marked difference between a writer who is conscious of the techniques of oral narratives and what needs to be done when incorporating these techniques into written art and one who uses these oral techniques without being aware that they are using them. In this book Ndebele narratives are analyzed from these two perspectives. The work brings out evidence of narratives that exhibits folktale techniques but the writers of those narratives deny that they ever thought of any folktale during the time of creating their narratives. The work identifies characters in these narratives which are created using the folktale model. It shows how critical it is to understand the folktale model in order to identify the message the writer is putting forward in their narrative. A chapter is devoted on the role of the colonial Literature Bureau in the creation and growth Ndebele narratives.

Tommy Matshakayile-Ndlovu was born in 1945 at Matshakayile Village in rural Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia then). He was educated in the rural schools of Rhodesia and graduated at the University College of Rhodesia under the University of London in 1970. He majored in Ndebele and History. He holds a D.Phil in Ndebele with the University of Zimbabwe.