The construction and dissemination of knowledge through african tales: the oral tradition about Ioruba cosmology

Abstract

This production makes a brief reflection on the form of construction and diffusion of knowledge from oral practices of African culture through the tales and legends passed on between generations. The theme chosen for observation, research and theoretical construction was cosmology, the way of facing the emergence of the universe, making a parallel between formal science and African culture. It introduces, in an introductory way, a comparative analysis of the diffusion of knowledge of formal science and those of African tales, on the subject, having the different views, without legitimizing or hierarchizing any of the possibilities observed. These are two forms of knowledge representation, the formal scientific canon of the conception of the universe and the playful way, and not least, that the African tradition conceives the creation of the world and of human beings. The construction and use of the concept of oral reading on the theme is one of the achievements of the text, also bringing with it and consequently the dimension of Africanities embedded in the process of spreading knowledge and knowledge.