Digitising folktales: Cultural remediation and children’s participation

Abstract

Digitisation has altered and reinvented the fabric of African folklore, redefining the concept of the audience and the performance, as well as the audience-performer relationship. These reconfigurations have raised questions regarding the capacities of digitally remediated folkloric forms to sustain traditional African cultural values and folkloric performance among African children and youths. Not disregarding the fears of the sceptics, and focusing on the YouTube digital media platform, this study attempts to examine the alterations instigated by the intersection of digital technology with these cultural practices. It accomplishes this by identifying new cultural patterns engendered when technology acts on and remediates autochthonous cultural forms like the folktale. These cultural patterns include the destabilisation of the fixed temporalities of folktale performances, the introduction of a new kind of “permanence” that makes cultural archiving possible, and the use of visual representation in place of verbal descriptions. This article also explores how the performative features are adapted, especially on the axes of functionality, morphology, structure, and performance. More specifically, it appraises the use of YouTube in remediating Igbo folktale in the era of digital technology. To do this, the study comparatively examines the performative features of primary Igbo folktale performances alongside the remediated versions available on YouTube. This strategic inquiry aims at exploring the suitability of remediated cultural formats in retaining autochthonous cultural values and the functions of the primary folktale. It also shows that for children/youths, remediated folktale performances stimulate a heightened sense of autonomy. This kind of participatory autonomy is made possible by the modes of cultural interactivity facilitated by YouTube technologies.