ABSTRACT
The study examined the pedagogical prospects of folktales in reviving and teaching authentic African moral values. This study explicates that every action is a product of moral values. Moral values as defined by the study, means a standard on which people judge right actions from wrong ones. Moral values therefore are likely to vary from one society to another, just as cultures vary. The African culture or moral philosophy was examined from the standpoint of different scholars and all works seem to have a point of convergence which is the Philosophy of Ubuntu. Moral values of contemporary Africa seem to be in sharp contrast with its original philosophy of communal life (Ubuntu). It is this lack in practice of worthwhile authentic African moral blueprints that has initiated this research. The study investigated the additives inherent in indigenous education that were capable of raising sound minds and characters that are absent in contemporary Africa. From this study, it was discovered that in traditional Africa, the formation and practice of good character was a major determinant to the classification of the African “educated man”. The lack of good character in modern day Nigeria has led many scholars to declare some sense of a moral crisis in Nigeria. This study, with the aim of character formation and mulling, attempts to revive and teach worthwhile tenets of authentic African moral philosophy of Ubuntu. Basic level of education was the focus for the application of these folktales. Basic level students most likely are the future youths and if we groom them properly, we might stand a chance of raising less: sex workers, cyber-crime, ritualism, cultism, election thugs, drug addiction in Africa, and Nigeria in particular. This research work was carried out using philosophical tools of descriptive and phenomenological analysis. African folktales which represents the folk life of Africans will not only tell and teach the African child how Africans once lived or behaved, but also teach these, in an enjoyable and play-way manner (instead of the drudgery and boring shut-up and listen approach still practiced in Nigeria).This indeed will help reduce the shock felt by contemporary parents at the exploits of their wards. This will also help revive the moral virtues much valued by these parents when they make statements such us “in our days this or that cannot happen” or “this is not the way we were brought up”. These, indeed, according to some scholars in the study have been sacrificed on the altar of globalization, modernity or whatever name ascribed to it. Here the study holds that folktales may have some positive inputs in solving the problem of cultural differences and intolerance. Therefore the study recommended ways in which folktales can be utilized in reviving morals in schools, that folktales should be used as extracurricular activity, to be sung at morning assemblies, break time and closing songs; that African teachers should be properly grounded in African philosophy in order to translate and transmit the meanings of any given folktales to the students, even the meanings of folktales and proverbs; and that teachers should properly understand the nature of African thought-systems and their places in our contemporary development as a people, especially the teaching of African music and drama, in transmitting moral values to the children and in achieving integral national development.
