ABSTRACT
This chapter examines South African folklore not through textual analysis of individual stories but rather through an exploration of how the indigenous tradition is manifested in notable collections by three well-known authorities on the subject. There is a rich tradition of folklore in South Africa which is able to tell much about the traditions, beliefs and customs practiced by and passed among the South African people. Indigenous South African folktales have been presented orally, and are couched in performances which include “a number of other kinds of expression for which Black Africa is known to Westerners, especially dancing and drumming”. Colonial collectors were limited in their ability to accurately record performance-based folklore because the appropriate technology wasn’t available to them. Folktales are able to reveal hidden and manipulated truths, but when a storyteller fails to be true to the core of their tradition their tales can end up obscuring the social and historical dynamics that produced the problems.
