ABSTRACT
Undoubtedly one of the most popular, rigorously researched and copiously analyzed genres of Yorùbá folklore, àlọ́—which has been generally accepted as meaning “folktale” in English—is a multipurpose, multidimensional phenomenon which has thrived in the course of time by virtue of its ability to combine the essence of poetry, prose, play and purpose (see Bascom 1949; Bámgbóṣé 1969; Babalọlá 1974; Yáì 1977, 419–62; Ọlábímtán 1982; Ọlátúnjí 1984, 181–99; Àjàyí 2004; Akínyẹmí 2015). These scholars have investigated and analyzed the form and content of àlọ́ and highlighted its linguistic, cultural, educational and ludic features, even within the context of the ravages of colonization and deracination that have imperilled the cream of Yorùbá cultural practices in the past three centuries. In this piece, we explore the “survival” of this genre in the variety and richness of its many incarnations as oral art and performance idiom.
