Zanendaba! Exploring how Zulu traditional storytelling can contribute to better futures
Abstract: Engaging with collective imaginaries to co-create positive stories about the future is suggested as a powerful tool for increasing the social-ecological resilience needed to cope with uncertainty and change. Indeed, as archaeological evidence shows, stories and storytelling about humankind and the rest of nature are as old as modern humanity. The geographical distribution of this evidence reveals that various forms of storytelling have been practiced by probably all communities across scales. Although oral traditions in nonliterate societies codify particular forms of place-based knowledge, cultural traditions and cultural values, folktales and traditional practices of storytelling have been largely overlooked in sustainability scientific endeavours. Using a case-based approach, I employed multiple sources of empirical evidence to examine the traditional storytelling practices in connection to the cultural values of the AmaZulu in KwaZulu Natal in South Africa. By combining qualitative content analysis, interviews with locals and conceptual modelling, my results endorse that telling folktales has been a cross-generational technique for accumulating local knowledge, as well as a vehicle for vertical and horizontal transmission of cultural values. Findings also suggested that within the last generation, various interacting drivers have caused the discontinuation of this practice. In so doing, these drivers have also altered the cultural value space, triggering a disconnection with the natural world, and partially explaining the growing sustainability challenges within KwaZulu Natal. Nevertheless, findings also implied that with the studied community, the values underpinning prosocial and sustainable behaviours are still present but took different forms: the disconnection with nature triggered the loss of eudaimonic aspects, rendering these cultural values either held or moral values. I hypothesise that converting values from held to relational over revitalising and innovating the practice of storytelling, may foster a reconnection of people and nature and lead a pathway towards more just and sustainable futures.
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