https://doi.org/10.7592/FEJF2022.85.gebregeorgis GENDER ROLE PERCEPTIONS IN SELECTED SOUTH-AFRICAN FOLKTALES Mehari Yimulaw Gebregeorgis College of Social Sciences and Languages Mekelle University, Tigray, Ethiopia mehariyimulaw@gmail.com Abstract: The objective of the study was to unpack gender role perceptions in selected South-African folktales. To this end, 65 purposefully selected folktales which reinforce character roles were analysed and interpreted, using narrative analysis. With the exception of a few that are used as instruments of contes- tation, the studied South-African folktales mainly serve as a tool to confirm the entrenched hegemonic philosophy of patriarchal communal life in terms of marriage, work, character traits, and authority. The rebelliousness of female characters against the patriarchal system in some folktales indicates that there is an emerging dynamism of discourse which aims at transforming the gender stereotype ideology inculcated in the folktales. Keywords: culture, folklore, folktale, gender, role INTRODUCTION Folktales are stories which “are not considered as dogma or history; they may or may not have happened” (Bascom 1965: 4). They emanate from the think- ing, perceptions, and experiences of individuals or a community (Lynch-Brown & Tomlinson 1993). Tales of marvellous themes (fairy tales), tales which reflect the real world’s incidents (novellas), stories where super humans appear as characters (hero tales), tales of unusual events that are presumed to have re- ally happened (legends), descriptions that justify how the present world and its inhabitants are the way they are now (etiological tales) and narrations which personify animals (animal tales) are all versions, with no clear demarcation, subsumed under ‘folktale’ (Thompson 1951 [1946]). To address the social truth of the time and preach the values anticipated by the people, common charac- teristics that folktales adhere to are narrating the escapades of characters, employing supernatural adversaries and/or supernatural helpers, rewarding the righteous and punishing the malicious (Norton 1987). With regard to their http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol85/gebregeorgis.pdf