DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2017.v05i09.008

Pages: 1149-1155

Oral literature is an aspect of literature preserved not in written form but in oral form. It is highly valued in Africa in general and in Igbo in particular mainly because of its didactic nature. To some people, Oral literature is only but a mirage because what is not written down cannot in any way, be regarded as literature. The researcher sees this as an illusion and thus, in this paper, he makes it vivid that anything written down was first conceived and probably rendered orally. He sees oral literature as an indispensable aspect of literature. In this paper, he has chronicled various forms of oral literature, stating their areas of overlap and their differences as well as their various needs and uses.