Man, Know Thyself: The Role of Ananse Stories in Ghanaian Pedagogy
ISSUE: Vol.1 No.2 December 2019 Article 2 pp.8-24
AUTHOR: Peter Arthur
DOI : 10.32051/12301902
ABSTRACT
The Akans in West Africa have their own approach towards the structures of the narrative and they make a very meaningful contribution towards the beauty of the universal concept of narratology. Using a qualitative approach, ethnographic instruments, to be precise, and using literary stylistics as a means of analysing the text, I find out that the Akans use ananseεm, a story telling technique, as means of indirection in social communication. I also find out that apart from the fact that it brings the past and the present together in performance, thus creating a homology between the living and the dead and serving as a means of production for local knowledge, anansesεm is a powerful tool for serving as Akan collective consciousness and for constructing the Akan identity. I recommend that based upon the powerful influence of anansesεm on the behaviour of the Akans, it should be considered a serious component of pedagogy in Ghanaian schools.
© 2020 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Publishers. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).