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THE RIDDLE IS ONE of the most important forms of oral art in Africa; yet it remains undefined and for the most part undescribed. What features lead us identify certain verbal expressions from many different languages as riddles? What grounds do we have for providing numerous African terms with such English equivalents as to pose a riddle, to solve a riddle, when even in English the riddle is not satisfactorily defined? On what basis do we identify riddles anywhere at all? On the basis of structural analysis? Or intuition? What features identify the riddle genre from particular manifestations of the genre? Can the study of African riddles bring new information the folklorist? Questions like these have received only scant attention from specialists in African studies, even though many collections of African oral art have been classified as riddles. The descriptive analysis of African riddles so far attempted is quite negligible. I can think of only one descriptive study of a riddle collection in which the author attempts make use of folkloristic theory, namely, Gowlett's description of Lozi riddles where attempts are made apply the suggestions of Dundes and Georges.1 Practically no direct study has been made of specific or comparative African riddle collections. The general emphasis is still on riddle collecting, but there is now sufficient material from Africa make possible at least tentative steps toward the discussion of riddle definition and analysis from African material.
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