Archetypes and functionality: examples of selected motifs in Yoruba folktales

This paper focuses on the theory of archetype in an attempt to investigate both the breath as well as the depth of Yoruba philosophy. This is meant to, apart from locating a universal framework around which the Yoruba mind works, also validate the claim that the ‘non-tangible’ thought of man could be transformed, as it were, to assume a material form. When this is done, it would erect lasting structures in the form of motifs in the human mind. Indeed, one of the sundry manifestations of the exercise of the imagination among Yoruba people is the folktale. It involves a pot-pourri of forms as songs, mimicry, narration and so on; this is apart from its central essence of being able to capture the totality of ‘man in society’. This paper concludes that in every situation where there is contact between the concept archetype and any elements of the Yoruba cosmology, there are some logics involved. One of such logical consistencies which could be found in every culture that makes use of archetypes is that there is one relationship or another between every motif drawn upon in the folktale of the people and their thinking. Both the motif and the people’s philosophy are often found to corroborate certain residual thoughts in the mind of the user society/people.