ABSTRACT
It is no longer news to state that the customs, beliefs, values and opinions of the African society have been handed down from their ancestors to posterity by word of mouth or by practice since the earliest times, until the advent of European colonization and its stress on literacy and the written word barely 100 years ago, changed the trend. Before this so-called ‘civilizing’ contact the African had lived his life and had maintained his tradition in his own way. He had made things and had acquired property; he had believed, loved, hated, fought, wandered and wondered, and had learnt many things by his own empirical existence. His dreams, fears and his hopes had existed since the most primitive days when his life began.
