African Folktales at Internet Archive: Tales of an Ashanti Father

After yesterday's Ashanti Proverbs book, I knew I wanted to feature Peggy Appiah's Tales of an Ashanti Father which is just a click away with Internet Archive digital borrowing:

This book was first published in 1967, and it is one of several books of West African folklore by Peggy Appiah. And yes, she is the mother of Kwame Anthony Appiah, and some of his books are also available for checkout at the Internet Archive.

Peggy Appiah was born Enid Margaret Cripps in England in 1921, daughter of Sir Stafford Cripps (a leader in the Labor Party), and she married Joseph Emmanuel Appiah in 1953; they met when he was a law student in London. They moved to Ghana, and his home became her home; she died in Ghana in 2006. You can read her obituary in the New York Times: Peggy Appiah, 84, Author Who Bridged Two Cultures, Dies. There is also a Wikipedia article about her.

This book, Tales of an Ashanti Father, focuses on Ananse (Anansi) tales, Ananse being the Akan word for "Spider," who is a key character in West African folklore and mythology. Here is how Peggy Appiah describes him in the opening words of this book: "Shrewd and cunning, greedy and clever, his actions are those of a man, and he only returns to the cobwebs on the ciling when he is in trouble and escaping punishment. So well-known is he that he has given his name to the whole rich tradition of tales on which so many Ghanaian children are brought up  —anansesem — or spider tales."

Anansi does appear as a character in many of these stories but all the stories are "Anansi stories" ... and if you have not read any African Ananse stories before, this book is a beautiful way to begin. The illustrations are by Mora Dickson:

Thanks to the Internet Archive, the book is just a click away!