“M’Riddle, M’Riddle, M’Yanday, O”

Oral tradition or orature, encompassing such elements as folktales, legends, beliefs, superstitions, myths, cosmology, songs, proverbs, jokes, riddles and rhymes is a global phenomenon, its advent likely coterminous with humankind's acquisition of language. For a long time, Western scholarship tended to devalue the genius of the Caribbean imports, especially that of Africans. As they played havoc with the preemptive assignment of inferiority to things African that justified slavery, ol' story and other African oral narratives were often attributed to others such as the Portuguese. Best defined and persistent in places where entertainment was limited, Bahamian storytelling, in its heyday, had a quadruple function-practical, didactic, satirical and aesthetic. In the extended workday of agricultural communities, storytelling invigorated the evening hours. Even a cursory examination of folktales from Africa and the Caribbean complex demonstrates similarities beyond coincidence, while revealing sufficient divergence to evidence a dynamic creativity among the Caribbean patchwork of ethnicities.