On Knowing the Answer

WHAT IS THE OBJECT OF RIDDLE STUDY-the behavior of riddlers with its social and psychological functions, the structure of riddle questions, the logic binding the parts? All these elements have been scrutinized recently with telling results. study of African riddling raises a simple and far-reaching question. Is the person to whom the riddle is posed really expected to guess the answer? Most Western-educated persons assume that he is, but I believe he is not. African riddling is more like a catechism than a creative inquiry. Usually in African riddles the connection between question and answer is fixed by tradition and popular acceptance. Question and answer are both necessary elements of the concept of riddle, but the assumption that a particular question requires a single answer has been attacked by investigators of both African and non-African materials. African-based argument is found in Lyndon Harries's excellent article The Riddle in Africa.' In this major contribution to its subject, Harries's criticism of earlier writers, his analysis of opening formulas, and his insistence upon the binary construction of riddles are wholly persuasive. But his discussion of fit undermines the relation of riddle answer to question. According to his argument, although the outsider may find riddles obscure, the riddler himself does not. Perceiving an analogy between semantic features of two expressions, he unites them in a riddle. Harries denies that the riddler intends to confuse his audience

Epistemology · African cultural and philosophical studies · African studies and sociopolitical issues · History · Philosophy · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies

• Techniques of Creolization

  Lee Haring•Journal of American Folklore•2003

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• A Review of African Oral Traditions and Literature

  Harold Scheub•African Studies Review•1985

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• Translating African Oral Literature in Global Contexts

  Haring Haring•The Global South•2011

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• Hekaya za Abunuwas

  Open Access•Wafula Yenjela•Cogent Arts and Humanities•2026

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• The Riddle

  Open Access•Annikki Kaivola-Bregenhøj•Humanities•2018

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• Gbaya Riddles in Changing Times

  Philip A Noss•Research in African Literatures•2006

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• The Riddle Process

  Thomas A Green, W J Pepicello•Journal of American Folklore•1984

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• A linguistic look at riddles

  Open Access•John M Dienhart•Journal of Pragmatics•1999

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