Riddle Events, Contexts and Audiences

The last half century (1960 - 2010) has seen substantial growth in African Oral Literature research especially in the areas of folklore narratives, oral poetry and proverbs; but not much has been done in the area of riddles, in particular, riddling as performance. Most of the studies done have focused on riddles as "short formulaic question-and-answer forms enjoyed mostly by children" thereby ignoring the dialogic and narrative forms of the riddle in everyday discourses. Studies of the riddle in Africa have mostly analysed mutilated riddle acts in the form of extracted riddle precedents that bear no clue of the events, contexts and audiences that produced or inspired the production of the supposed riddles. This book demonstrates the role of events, contexts, and audiences on riddling as performance. It also analyses the formal structure and performance patterns of popular riddle acts in Lusoga language and culture. It portrays the dynamics of meaning making processes and thematic patterning during riddling. The case of Nsinze Seed School riddle event reveals the central role of audiences, contexts and events play in creating and re-creating, producing and reproducing riddle texts.