YORUBA FOLKLORE: ALỌ ÌJÀPÁ ATI ÀDÀBÀ
Story telling is a form of evening entertainment in the traditional Yoruba family, usually taking place after the day's last meal.
Due to safety concerns, afterdark outdoor activities were not encouraged hence members of each household passes the idle evening by telling tales and solving riddles.
The advent of colonisation and christenisation brought about new social arrangements, which eventually led to the disappearance of evening storytime.
This project is an effort geared towards bringing the delight of traditional Yoruba folktales to the listening of today's diverse audience, as well as preserving it for the future generations.
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Every Child brought up within the traditional Yoruba setting was exposed to the Ìjàpá tales.
Ìjàpá, also referred to as Alábahun, is by far the most popular protagonist of the Yoruba folk tales. And due to its laziness, greed and miserliness, is always up to one mischief or another to secure an undue advantage for itself, hence the Yoruba hyperbolic proverb of 'Ọ̀ràn gbogbo kii sé lórí Alábahun' - All trouble will not fail to crash on the Alábahun's head.
For this project, i do not rely on my recollection of the tales heard in my childhood as they are now vague in most parts. I'll therefore be reading from the work of a renowned author, Adeboye Babalola, ÀKÓJỌPỌ̀ ÀLỌ́ ÌJÀPÁ (The Collected Tales of Ijapa). The tales in this volume are authentic and only slightly vary from the versions of other authors based on their different storytelling styles.