African Folktales at Internet Archive: The River that Went to the Sky

This week I'm focusing on African story anthologies at Internet Archive; yesterday, I wrote about Mandela's Favorite African Folktales, and the book for today is another anthology: The River that Went to the Sky: Twelve Tales by African Storytellers, edited by Mary Medlicott, just a click away at Internet Archive.

The book has also been reissued under a different title: Tales from Africa.

Here are the different regions of Africa that are represented in the 12 stories:

Mary Medlicott is a storyteller based in the U.K., and you can find out more about her books here at her website: Storyworks.org. There are notes from each of the storytellers in the back of the book, and one of the storytellers — Gcina Mhlophe— appeared in an earlier blog post in this series with her book, Stories of Africa. 

Some of the stories in this book are traditional folktales, while others are contemporary stories. As Medlicott explains, "The wells of African oral tradition are deep. Now, more than ever before, the world needs the refreshment they offer. But Africa today is a place of huge modern cities as well as traditional villages. I felt it vital to reflect that." 

So, for example, there is a story by Sousa Jamba, "My Godfather," which is based on his own life experiences; born in 1966, he fled Angola in 1975 to escape the civil war, growing up as a refugee in Zambia. You can find out more about Jamba's life and work at Wikipedia.

The illustrations are by a Nigerian artist, Ademola Akintola, who you can follow at Instagram. His artwork really adds to the stories; here's an illustration for a story about Ananse's son on a trip to the market... and yes, drumming is an important part of the story:

So, for a wonderful survey of Africa, both traditional and modern, this book is a great choice:

The River that Went to the Sky:

Twelve Tales by African Storytellers

edited by Mary Medlicott