KENTE - Cape Coast Journal of Literature and the Arts

Myth, Migrancy and the Metropole: Akan-African Folktales as a Mythocolonial Syntax of Survival

Joseph Brookman Amissah-Arthur — 2026-04-24

The quest for food has long been documented as a key structural paradigm in the African folktale tradition. The Akan AnansesꜪm, a subset of the tradition, does not deviate from this structural pattern. Many distinguished grammarians of the Akan folktale—Lee Haring (1972), Roger D. Abrahams (1983: 3), Ruth Minott Egglestone (2001), Lewis Hyde (1998: 20), Amissah-Arthur (2019)—maintain that the food trope represents the focal point around which the Ananse tale is organised. In spite of the above, there has been very minimal attempt to link the food quest to postcolonial African economic hardship and the economic migrancy that results from it. The present paper re-reads Ananse tales through the cross-disciplinary lenses of structural, postcolonial and mythopoetic theories to arrive at the conclusion that African folktales essentially provide a formulaic response to the existential hardship at home, or predict it. The tales demonstrate archetypal agency by revealing how the protagonists travel to the dangerous outskirts of the village or, defying all physical and metaphysical odds, venture into the forbidden forest of Sasabonsam, the archetypal Akan monster, to seek for a solution to the hunger at home. It is our argument that, whether they go by aircraft or rickety dinghy, whether by automobile or on foot across the Sahara Desert, whether they stow away, or travel legally, postcolonial Africans who migrate to Europe, America and elsewhere, in search for existential fulfilment are unconsciously re-enacting the quest for food as pertains in the Akan-African folktales. We suggest that the structural pattern of the tales Africans listen to as children provides a syntax for surviving threatening economic situations. The pattern furnishes a psychological blueprint for African self-preservation which unconsciously influences postcolonial Africans migratory practices.

“Oh, Friends, Do Look at Kweku Ananse’s Amazing Ways”: The Song as a Subtext in Efua Sutherland’s Edufa (1967) and The Marriage of Anansewa (1975)

Catherine Antwi Boasiako — 2026-04-24

A rich body of scholarship exists on Efua Sutherland's Edufa and The Marriage of Anansewa; however, previous studies have largely concentrated on the thematic and ideological dimensions of these texts, leaving the function of songs as subtextual devices considerably underexplored. This is a notable gap, given the prominence of songs within the narrative architecture of both plays. The present paper addresses this lacuna by examining how songs in the selected plays operate as subtexts in the construction of meaning and narrative. The central argument advanced here is that songs in these texts function not merely as ornamental embellishments but as integral components of the dramatic structure, carrying significant narrative, thematic, and ideological weight in their own right.

‘Physician, Heal Thyself’: Disability, Aesthetic Nervousness, and Diasporic Authority in Tope Folarin’s Miracle

Joseph Martin Mould — 2026-04-24

The paper addresses a critical gap in disability scholarship on African diasporic literature where impairment is often read as a metaphor or as a social stigma without sufficient attention to its structural function within migrant religious spaces. Focusing on Tope Folarin’s short story Miracle, the paper examines how blindness operates within a Nigerian Pentecostal community in Texas. The study draws on Ato Quayson’s (2017) theory of aesthetic nervousness, particularly the typologies of disability as a signifier of ritual insight and disability as epiphany, supplemented by social and materialist disability models (Oliver, 1990; Brown, 2008). Through close textual analysis of the narrative, the analysis yields three central findings. First, the blind prophet’s impairment functions as ritual capital that authorises his charismatic legitimacy within the diasporic congregation. Second, his inability to heal himself produces aesthetic nervousness that destabilises his authority and exposes the commodification of disability within migrant religious economies. Third, the narrator’s failed healing generates epistemic reorientation through which faith, performance, and community survival are critically re-evaluated. The paper concludes that in Miracle, disability operates as a contested site where embodiment, belief and diasporic identity are negotiated. The paper contributes to disability and diaspora studies by suggesting how literary representations of impairment can function as a structural critique of charismatic authority within transnational contexts.

Cultural Poetics of Loss: Repetition and Parallelism in Dagbamba Dirge Performance

Sulemana Issahaku — 2026-04-24

This paper addresses parallelism and repetition in the Dagbamba dirge. The study aims to investigate parallelism and repetition as core elements of oral art, focusing on synonymous, antithetic, synthetic, or constructive parallelism (or sameness), which are prominent in the Dagbamba dirge. Dirge serves not only as a farewell to the deceased but also as a vehicle for cultural transmission and the expression of communal values. The paper analyses selected dirges and uncovers how parallelism and repetition function to enhance the aesthetic quality, emotional intensity, and mnemonic aid of these lamentations. The paper uses Richard Bauman’s Performance Theory as its analytical tool since dirge is a mode of communication that involves the performer (addresser), the audience (addressees) and the event's setting. A qualitative research approach is adopted using both primary and secondary data. The findings reveal that parallelism and repetition serve multiple purposes: they enhance the mnemonic quality of the dirges, emphasize key thematic elements, and provide a rhythmic and emotional cadence that resonates with both performers and listeners.

‘Sex Is A Journey’: An Examination of Disability, Sex and Character Development in Isidore Okpewho’s The Last Duty

Samuel Aduse-Poku — 2026-04-24

This paper examines the intersections between disability, sex and character development in Isidore Okpewho’s The Last Duty. Specifically, the paper focuses on Odibo’s sexual journey in order to show how the transformation the disabled character goes through in the area of his sexual life is critical to plot and character development in Okpewho’s novel. The study reveals that Odibo grows from being a seemingly asexual character to an individual who asserts his sexuality even in the face of challenges. Odibo’s sexual growth reaches its climax when he finally engages in sexual intercourse with Aku, an experience that helps him to embrace his masculinity. This study adds to the discussions on the intersections between sex and disability in the African literary texts by revealing how sex plays a key role in the development of the disabled character. The stages of sexual development presented in the paper also offer a way of understanding how the sexual life of Odibo contributes to the plot development of Okpewho’s novel.