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ABSTRACT
This essay examines the typology and social function of the riddling culture among the Baganda and Banyankore of central and south-western Uganda. It draws on examples from various categories of riddle collected in these communities to analyse the kinds of coda, text structures, and metanarrative devices that are employed in riddling discourse. The essay discusses the extent to which riddles function as a crossover form in these societies, and it examines whether those posed by children among themselves, or by adults and children to a mixed audience, differ in terms of the complexity of themes and metaphors used by the performers. It argues that the use of established coda and metanarrative devices helps to index the ongoing social interaction between the performer and audience and to structure riddling in accordance with social reality. The essay further argues that although riddles posed to a crossover audience may differ greatly from those targeting an exclusively adult audience, our understanding of the functional value of riddles depends on the prevailing social issues in the community at the time of performance. Understanding riddling as a discourse in these Ugandan cultures thus depends as much on unravelling the way the established formulas function as on exploring the way the metanarrative and other language devices relate to the nature of a given audience and to the prevailing social realities in the community at the time of the performance.
Introduction
IN this ESSAY, I examine the question of typology in the riddling culture of the Baganda and Banyankore communities in central and southwestern Uganda. Drawing examples from various categories of riddles in the above communities, I argue that while riddling follows an established coda, linear structure, and employs several metanarrative devices in the culture, understanding the functional value of riddles depends also on the audience and on the prevailing social issues in the community at the time of performance.
Among the Baganda and Banyankore, riddles can be categorized as texts that are clearly a crossover form. While they may be posed by children to an exclusively juvenile audience, riddles are often enjoyed by adults and children as a prelude to another activity such as storytelling. The riddles I recorded with most of my respondents, for example, came as an intermission...