Developing African oral traditional storytelling as a framework for studying with African peoples

Abstract

Oral traditions have played and continue to play a critical role in the lives of African peoples albeit changes in context and usage. In this article, I discuss the development of what I term the African Oral Traditional Storytelling (AOTS) Framework as an ethical and culturally centered approach to studying with African peoples. Akin to narrative inquiry methodology, the AOTS Framework is developed as an alternative approach to studying or working with African peoples by centering African oral storytelling, African philosophies and worldviews, languages, and cultures as relevant and essential to understanding the experiences of African peoples. The collaborative philosophical underpinnings of the AOTS Framework rest on the communal and the collaborators’ engagement in the study not just as people who provide information but as co-creators in the narratives, meanings, and understandings that are brought to bear.