DIDACTICISM IN CHILDREN’S FOLKSONGS: A STUDY OF SELECTED YORUBA FOLKSONGS

Abstract

This paper seeks to appraise the didacticism in Yoruba folksongs in relevance to the development of a child into an acceptable member of the society. This paper adopts the qualitative research method through interview to gather data about the didactic content of the Yoruba folksongs sung to children. It was discovered that vices such as indiscipline and disobedience are on the rise among children. Childhood, especially between 0-8 years is the formative years of a person when they should be guided to becoming acceptable members of the society. The demand of maintaining a work-life balance is one of the reasons parents and guardians do not get to spend much time with their children, consequently why they do not sing much of these didactic folksongs to their children. The result of these findings therefore shows that other avenues of teaching children didactic folksongs and having didactic folksongs sung to children should be explored.