Ngano Methodology

• In Event: Origin Theories of Learning: Recentering Indigenous Strategies of Learning and Life in Comparative and International Education

Proposal

Africans view traditional data-gathering procedures as one-way and extractive operations that fail to reflect their daily lives (Jaure et al., 2022). Methods of investigation cannot be separated from a people's history, cultural background, and worldview (Owusu-Ansah & Mji, 2013). This conceptual paper examines rural women's entrepreneurship training in Zimbabwe through the lens of Shona axio-epistemology and other practice-based techniques.

Purpose
This theoretical paper sought to explore the Shona concept of ngano as an ideal storytelling method of gathering data in Zimbabwe. The goal is to promote a decolonised methodology that adopts existing communication practices among the Shona people of Zimbabwe.

Findings
Stories serve as a conduit for communication and learning by tapping into our emotions, empathy, and curiosity. Consequently, stories are an integral aspect of the collective identity of Indigenous people, serving as powerful knowledge sources and a representation of their collective memory (Kayanja, 2021). The Shona people in Zimbabwe have an oral tradition of telling folktales known as Ngano. “The word Ngano itself is etymologically linked to zano or mano, which means advice” (Mapara, 2018, p. 8). Ngano can also be loosely translated to mean stories in general. Traditionally, storytellers, known as Sarungano, tell their stories in the third person. The listener is captivated when the Sarungano imitates several characters (supernatural beings and personified animals and plants) in the story and invites them into the story through singing, dancing, and rhythmically shouting in response (Chinyowa, 2004; Vambe, 2001;). It is common for a Sarungano to be an elder in their communities due to their vast life experiences and deep cultural knowledge concerning cosmology, spirituality, and caring for the environment. A Sarungano represents history, culture, proverbs, figures of speech, and imagery that provides the audience with an understanding of this knowledge. Ngano is not just for entertainment; it is a communal participatory experience that utilizes cultural proverbs, parables, cosmologies, and traditional knowledge to entertain and educate about Ubuntu values (Mapara, 2018). This is consistent with Ngugi wa Thiong’o (1986) and Vambe (2001), who define African storytelling as a community activity where people listen to and take part in stories about past deeds, beliefs, knowledge, counsel, morality, taboos, and myths. The ngano methodology provides a way to make sense of, understand, and know Shona people and their lived business experiences (Osei-Tutu, 2023).

Contribution
According to Osei-Tutu (2023), the critical differences between African indigenous qualitative inquiry methodologies like Ngano and Western qualitative inquiry methods like narrative inquiry lie in the oral cultural techniques, languages, and visual imagery used to convey the stories, as well as the less filtered academic rhetoric that situates non-dominant epistemological, ontological, and axiological perspectives. This methodology contributes broadly to the literature around theories of learning and more specifically to the growing number of studies on African indigenous methodologies.

Author

• Enet Mukurazita, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities - Minneapolis, MN