FROM THE PHILIPPINES TO SOUTH AFRICA: HOW BLAAN AND ZULU RIDDLES KEEP CULTURE ALIVE

Riddles may seem like playful word games, but within indigenous communities, they carry the weight of history, identity, and survival.

This is according to Professor Genevieve Jorolan-Quintero University of the Philippines Mindanao who presented a paper titled “Exploring the role of riddles in cultural transmission and as cultural heritage: A comparison of selected Philippine and South African riddles” at the first South African Foklore Society conference in Zamukulungisa site.

“Riddles are derived from the common situations, facts, practices, and materials found within a particular cultural group’s environment. They are more than entertainment; they function as tools of teaching, preserving cultural memory, and transmitting indigenous knowledge across generations,” said Jorolan-Quintero

According to the Professor, Blaan people of the Philippines and the Zulus of South Africa remain vibrant forms of oral tradition despite the dominance of modern technology.

Her research focused on how Blaan riddles often draw from agriculture, ecology, and household life, while Zulu riddles rely heavily on animal imagery and social commentary.

These include Blaan riddles comparing a spring to a woman’s breasts or a needle and thread to a rooster with a long intestine.

Meanwhile, Zulu riddles made use of vivid metaphors such as “my minister who eats eggs” or “a thing which is harvested and is not planted.”

These examples reveal the wit, playfulness, and cultural depth encoded in everyday life.

Quintero explained that riddles also act as compact cultural texts, serving linguistic, social, ecological, and moral functions.

Their continued practice in both countries demonstrates the importance of safeguarding oral traditions as part of intangible cultural heritage, in line with UNESCO’s recognition of folklore as vital to cultural survival.

“Riddles are efficient vehicles of cultural transmission. They anchor social norms, ecological knowledge, and language,” she said, stressing that their survival depends on community-cantered approaches that prioritize living practice over simple archiving.

The study also noted shared challenges between the Philippines and South Africa, particularly the pressures of modernization and language shift, which threaten the transmission of oral traditions to younger generations.

Quintero concluded that preserving riddles is not only about protecting the past but also about ensuring the continuity of cultural knowledge into the future.

-By Ongezwa Sigodi