African Folktales at Internet Archive: Books by Alexander McCall Smith

Earlier this week, I wrote about The Orphan Girl and Other Stories collected and retold by Buchi Offodile, a beautiful book that is part of the "International Folk Tale" series from Interlink Press (there are lots of used copies of books from this series at AbeBooks). Today, I want to profile another book from that series which is available for digital check-out at the Internet Archive: Children of Wax: African Folk Tales collected retold by Alexander McCall Smith. It's just a click away at Internet Archive.

That book was published in 1991, and the author explains that he collected these stories while traveling in Matabeleland in Zimbabwe (where he was born and grew up); they are stories of the Ndebele people. 

Then, another book appeared in 2005 with a different publisher but featuring the same stories from Zimbabwe, plus stories from Botswana collected by Elinah Grant (who translated them from Setswana into English), along with a new introduction: The Girl Who Married a Lion, and Other Tales from Africa. This book is available in multiple copies at Internet Archive for check-out:

And yes, this is THAT Alexander McCall Smith of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency; some of those books are also available at Internet Archive: all McCall Smith at Internet Archive. You can find out more about him at his website: AlexanderMcCallSmith.com, and at Wikipedia.

And for those of you who are Audible book users, there's a fantastic audiobook version of The Girl Who Married a Lion available at Audible; it's a great listening experience:

There are so many outstanding stories in this book! So, if you are looking for a great introduction to the storytelling traditions of South Africa, these stories from Zimbabwe and Botswana are a great place to start. And for more South African folktales, take a look at: Stories Gogo Told Me by Lisa Grainger. Another wonderful collection with stories from Zimbabwe and Botswana, plus Zambia and South Africa.

So many stories to enjoy! And check out the slideshow I made which I'll update as new book recommendations get added; it's embedded in the sidebar of the blog also.