The World around the Mother as a Gift in African Folktales and Fountain of Radical Joy

IF 0.9 2区社会学 Q2 CULTURAL STUDIES

Journal of African Cultural Studies Pub Date : 2023-04-03 DOI:10.1080/13696815.2023.2186381

D. Dipio

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Abstract

ABSTRACT In this article, I analyse selected African folktales that foreground the role of mothers in the everyday. The purpose is to appreciate the cultural logic of their representation in relation to the other characters. In the folktales, family is defined around the mother. The father is either conspicuously absent or peripheral. The mother’s self-giving and love towards the family are often radical and come with great sacrifice. Although desirable, it is not always a given that the family reciprocates her commitment. I argue that, in these African folktales, motherhood is crafted as a “gift principle” without which the family cannot survive. This representation of motherhood as “care” is archetypical, as seen in the iconography of Mother Mary in Catholicism. Why does culture endow the mother with such a radical attribute of other-centredness? Is this simply symbolic or does it cohere with the lived experiences of mothers? I draw from scholarship on feminist ethics of care and on the gift economy and motherhood. I conclude that mothers function in the folktales as humanising agents responsible for quality life in the community.

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非洲民间故事中母亲周围的世界作为礼物和激进快乐的源泉

摘要在这篇文章中，我分析了一些非洲民间故事，这些故事突出了母亲在日常生活中的作用。其目的是欣赏他们相对于其他角色的表现的文化逻辑。在民间故事中，家庭是围绕着母亲来定义的。父亲要么明显缺席，要么处于边缘地位。母亲的自我奉献和对家庭的爱往往是激进的，并伴随着巨大的牺牲。尽管这是令人向往的，但这个家庭并不总是会回报她的承诺。我认为，在这些非洲民间故事中，母性是一种“天赋原则”，没有它，家庭就无法生存。正如天主教圣母玛利亚的肖像画所示，这种将母性视为“关怀”的表现是原型的。为什么文化赋予母亲如此激进的其他中心属性？这仅仅是象征性的，还是与母亲的生活经历相一致？我借鉴了关于女性主义护理伦理以及礼物经济和母性的学术。我的结论是，在民间故事中，母亲是负责社区优质生活的人性化推动者。

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来源期刊

Journal of African Cultural Studies Multiple-

CiteScore

1.70

自引率

10.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of African Cultural Studies publishes leading scholarship on African culture from inside and outside Africa, with a special commitment to Africa-based authors and to African languages. Our editorial policy encourages an interdisciplinary approach, involving humanities, including environmental humanities. The journal focuses on dimensions of African culture, performance arts, visual arts, music, cinema, the role of the media, the relationship between culture and power, as well as issues within such fields as popular culture in Africa, sociolinguistic topics of cultural interest, and culture and gender. We welcome in particular articles that show evidence of understanding life on the ground, and that demonstrate local knowledge and linguistic competence. We do not publish articles that offer mostly textual analyses of cultural products like novels and films, nor articles that are mostly historical or those based primarily on secondary (such as digital and library) sources. The journal has evolved from the journal African Languages and Cultures, founded in 1988 in the Department of the Languages and Cultures of Africa at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. From 2019, it is published in association with the International African Institute, London. Journal of African Cultural Studies publishes original research articles. The journal also publishes an occasional Contemporary Conversations section, in which authors respond to current issues. The section has included reviews, interviews and invited response or position papers. We welcome proposals for future Contemporary Conversations themes.