As a result, folktales make it easier for children to differentiate characters, follow a plotline or recall a sequence of events. Not surprisingly, working with folktales can also help children develop the critical reading skills of phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension needed to meet the requirements defined in the Common Core Standards for Reading. While these classic stories are not only highly entertaining, they also play an important role in passing along core values or character traits.
Folktales were often employed to share a common history, to reinforce cultural values or highlight important traditions. When people belonged to a tribe or lived in a small village, by necessity they needed to be able to get along well under a variety of circumstances and minimize conflict. Typically, only the chief, a high priest or a Shaman could confront someone over committing an offense.
As a result, stories were often shared to intentionally clarify how a transgression had occurred. As folktales were passed down over generations they modeled behaviors and helped reinforce expectations about how to live a meaningful life.
Over time, folktales subtly incorporated character traits like caring, resourcefulness, trust or courage into the fabric of the stories. Folktales also model the elements of effective decision-making. Characters in folktales invariably encounter conflicts that require them to make difficult decisions and take action to resolve a conflict.
As a result, folktales can demonstrate the importance of making difficult decisions under challenging circumstances. Engaging children in discussions about the consequences of making poorly thought-out or rash decisions, helps them see the importance of making effective decisions in their lives. Folktales by their nature celebrate diversity. It also offers explanations to the movement and nature of such celestial bodies as the moon and the stars.
For a Shona child, Mwari is Musikavanhu the Creator of human beings and he lives in the skies, hence he is called Nyadenga Owner of the sky. According to Bruno Bettelheim such tales help children to cope with their dreams and inner turmoil. They are relevant to children because they contain action, suspense and basic conflicts. Shona mythology also contains many epic heroes of national and cultural significance.
Legends like Nehanda, Chaminuka, Kaguvi and Murenga, to mention but a few, embody all the ideal attributes of greatness. Cognisant of the relevance of the two legendary figures to Zimbabwean history and culture, Margaret M. In their oral form, the Chaminuka and Nehanda legends are long and complex narratives, covering as they do the entire pre-colonial history of the Shona people stretching over one and a half millennium years long.
Tredgold has however, simplified the sophisticated narratives to make them accessible and penetrable to juvenile minds but still retaining their characteristic pathos.
Besides, she accompanies the stories with impressive and eye-catching illustrations on every page of her book. The visuals aid children to imagine and appreciate the historical, social and cultural context in which Nehanda and Chaminuka lived and performed their great deeds.
Through these legends Tredgold introduces children to the fascinating rhythm of Shona life characterised by music and dance, drum and percussion, spirit possession, farming and hunting, healing and prophecy, ritual and mysteries. What does Tredgold tell children about Nehanda? However, there are several people who have been called Nehanda during the course of Zimbabwean pre-colonial and colonial history. This is due to the fact that the spirit of the original Nehanda possessed successive mediums in the history of the Shona people.
The Nehanda Tredgold presents to children was a daughter of the founder of the Munhumutapa state, Nyatsimba Mutota. She was given a district of her own to rule called Handa, hence she became known as Nehanda meaning ruler of Handa. She was a brilliant ruler who ruled well. When her father died, it is said that after his burial she and her followers on their return to Handa did something very strange. Nehanda struck a huge rock with her staff. The rock opened and she entered with all her followers and disappeared.
However, Tredgold further unfolds the intriguing legend by informing her juvenile readers that in the s another Nehanda emerged whose personal name was Charwe who lived in the Mazoe Valley. Her rise as the medium of Nehanda coincided with the encroachment of Europeans into Zimbabwe - hunters, concession seekers, traders, explorers, Christian missionaries and colonialists who wanted to colonize the land.
In the s when Europeans had just conquered Zimbabwe, Nehanda organized an army of warriors to drive the Europeans out of her country. The war Nehanda and her people fought became famously known as the First Chumurenga, which means war of liberation.
However, eventually Nehanda was captured and executed on April 27, The story of Nehanda is important to contemporary children in a number of ways. First, the legend of Nehanda is largely an embodiment of Zimbabwean pre-colonial history. Without the narrative of Nehanda Zimbabwean history is dull, incomplete and uncaptivating.
Tredgold should be commended for this realization and for her decision to retell the legend in a manner children can comprehend. Second, every nation expects its children to be patriotic and to learn to love their country right from infancy.
Children are the leaders of tomorrow, they are the rightful inheritors of their nations. They therefore ought to learn to love their country from a tender age. The heroic story of Nehanda imparts children with an awareness of the distinctiveness of their nation among others in terms of its historical and cultural identity and destiny, thus inculcating patriotism and a spirit of nationalism in them. Third, the Nehanda narrative is also an inspiration to the girl child.
In many cultures of the world, women have been considered non-achievers, inferior to men and incapable to taking challenging responsibilities in society. A young girl who reads the story of Nehanda is motivated to succeed and to have confidence in herself as a woman.
Indeed the powerful leverage of the influence of the Nehanda legend on Zimbabwean society has been evident throughout history. During the Second Chimurenga many young women joined the war of liberation inspired by what Nehanda did. Today Nehanda remains an icon and cultural hero inspiring both young men and women in their endeavours. Lastly, children become conscious of their cultural identity through reading this heroic narrative punctuated as it does with rituals and religious shrines.
Generally many children are born within a particular cultural milieu which they inherit from their ancestors. It is the culture which they claim as theirs and which gives them a cultural identity. Despite the phenomenon of globalization in which some cultures are gradually being effaced by global cultural processes children still need to know their cultural identity before they know and begin to appreciate those of others.
Even children of immigrants throughout the world have a right to know about their cultural identity. Chaminuka was a great prophet, healer and performer of miracles. He was killed in by the Ndebele just after the medium of Nehanda, Charwe, had become active.
He could also foresee the future and was said to be able to call down rain in any season…. Chaminuka kept tame pythons and other snakes, none of which ever harmed him. In the evenings wild antelopes and birds would come in from the bush to be fed with a little grain and to play fearlessly around his huts.
What is more, Chaminuka was a great musician and a famous player of the mbira musical instrument. Other researchers on the Chaminuka legend like Michael Gelfund 31 maintains that the spirit of Chaminuka could be heard speaking on trees and rocks. Such intrigues and mysteries will certainly fascinate children as they try to grapple with the amazing world of Chaminuka. The story of Chaminuka has also a moral dimension relevant to children.
Chaminuka was a man of virtue. All storytellers of Chaminuka applaud and constantly commend his generosity and his commitment to peace and happiness.
While a leader, he also had a heavy heart. Love towards others is the hallmark of a sane and harmonious society, committed to the cause human progress. Before Charwe, Shona history is dominated by Chaminuka. He was feared and respected by the Ndebele who had entered Zimbabwe from South Africa in the late s. However, when Chaminuka and his people refused to be subjects of the Ndebele king and to pay tribute too him, Lobengula decreed that Chaminuka should be punished.
But Chaminuka would not allow the Ndebele warriors to harass, kill and enslave his people. Instead he decided to submit himself to the Ndebele and be killed for his people to remain in peace. When he was approaching Ndebele territory he saw hundreds of armed Ndebele warriors who had been sent to capture him. Now something strange happened.
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