This week, the theme was anthologies that bring together stories from different parts of Africa:
by William Bascom
Saturday, July 31, 2021
African Folktales at Internet Archive: Week 11
And here we are... the last day of July! I am really glad I've had this project to keep me grounded and focused, slowly but surely adding one book every day. And I still have so many books that I've bookmarked and will keep on sharing as August begins. You can see the previous weekly round-ups with these links: May - June - July.
Friday, July 30, 2021
African Folktales at Internet Archive: The Ox of the Wonderful Horns
It's been a while since I've shared a book by Ashley Bryan, so I wanted to make sure to include one of his books during this week of anthologies, and I chose this one: The Ox of the Wonderful Horns and Other African Folktales... a lovely book that is just a click away at the Internet Archive.
Here are the stories you will find here: Ananse the Spider in Search of a Fool (an Ashanti story from western Africa); Frog and His Two Wives; Elephant and Frog Go Courting (these two are from Angola); Tortoise, Hare, and the Sweet Potatoes, and The Ox of the Wonderful Horns (these two are from South Africa). Don't those all sound great? And of course I am happy because they are all stories with animal characters.
Ashley Bryan wrote the text and he did the marvelous illustrations. This is Tortoise and Hare:
And here you see Frog and Elephant:
Plus here are the other Ashley Bryan blog posts from earlier this summer, and there are more Ashley Bryan books to come too! Here's the Ashley Bryan book link for today:
Thursday, July 29, 2021
African Folktales at Internet Archive: The King's Drum
For today's anthology, I wanted to return to one of my favorite story collectors, Harold Courlander, and his book The King's Drum and Other African Stories, which is just a click away at the Internet Archive.
This book contains 29 stories from a wide range of different African storytelling traditions. Be sure to check out the notes in the back of the book for each story; Courlander often includes variant stories for comparison and his notes are always fascinating.
The illustrations are by Enrico Arno, who contributed artwork for other Courlander books also. Here's his illustration for the famous story of the Moon's message, this time with grasshopper and rabbit as the two messengers:
And here's the illustration for the story of the hunter and his talking leopard:
You can find out more about Courlander in this earlier post: Treasury of African Folklore, and also here: Ijapa the Tortoise, and Other Nigerian Tales, which also features illustrations by Arno. Plus there are yet more Courlander boos yet to come!
Meanwhile, for today, this African storytelling panorama awaits you at the Archive!
by Harold Courlander
Wednesday, July 28, 2021
African Folktales at Internet Archive: Tokoloshi
For Week 11, I'm featuring anthologies (see Week 11 all on one page), and I knew I wanted to include this anthology of stories for children: Tokoloshi: African Folktales Retold by Diane Pitcher, just a click away at Internet Archive.
The stories come mostly from Bantu-speaking peoples from southern and also central Africa, although there are some stories from eastern Africa and from western Africa too. Diane Pitcher is herself from South Africa, and she has used a Zulu framework to tie the stories together, with Zulu names for the characters, as she explains in the introduction.
The illustrations by Meg Rutherford are lovely, and, as you can see, the hare is an important character here, which makes me happy:
The title character of the book, Tokoloshi, is a South African goblin-like water sprite, and you can read more about him at Wikipedia. It is because of Tokoloshi that I picked this book in particular. I just finished writing an interactive Twine game about cryptid characters, and I included Tokoloshi in the cast of characters; if you like Twine games, you can play the game here: Cryptid Encounters.
Meanwhile, for Tokoloshi and other storytelling delights, take a look at Pitcher's book, courtesy of the Internet Archive:
by Diane Pitcher
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
African Folktales at Internet Archive: When Elephant Was King
I shared some dilemma tale books by Bascom and Jablow so far this week, and today I want to shift back to animal tales (my favorites), starting with this book by Nick Greaves: When Elephant Was King and Other Elephant Tales from Africa, and the book is just a click away at Internet Archive.
There are 25 different stories with elephants here, including stories from all over Africa. There are also some introductory chapters with zoological facts about elephants along with different cultural beliefs and superstitions.
The illustrations in the bookare by Julia Bruton. There are lots of elephants, of course, like this one:
Plus other beautiful drawings like this one of the hare:
And this two-page spread of the buffalo:
When Greaves published this book (first edition in 1996 and then revised in 2000), the elephant population had gone down from 1.3 million elephants in African in 1979 to just half of that in the late 1990s. Those numbers have continued to decline; you can read more about that in this World Wildlife Fund article from 2018: The status of African elephants.
I've written about Nick Greaves before; here's a blog post about his book When Lion Could Fly, and you can also find out more at his website: NickGreaves.info.
When Greaves wrote this book, he did so hoping to support elephant conservation, and that need is even more urgent today. So, you can use this book both to learn about the actual elephants of Africa, and also the stories that have been told about them all over the continent.
by Nick Greaves
Monday, July 26, 2021
African Folktales at Internet Archive: Intimate Folklore of Africa
Yesterday I shared William Bascom's book with hundreds of summaries of dilemma tales, so today I wanted to share a book with some wonderful dilemma tales told in detail: Yes and No: The Intimate Folklore of Africa by Alta Jablow, just a click away at Internet Archive.
The book contains 25 dilemma tales, along with about a dozen love stories also, plus proverbs and riddles too! Alta Jablow lived and worked in Liberia in the 1950s (her husband worked for UNESCO), and she used some of the stories she collected in Liberia in this book. Jablow does not provide bibliography story by story, but she does indicate the tribal tradition for each story, and you can find a list at the end of the foreword to the books she used as her sources.
For the dilemma tales and love stories, she has multiple stories from the Fan, Hausa, Vai, Bura, Ibibio, and Bakongo storytelling traditions, along with about another dozen or so traditions that are represented by one story. The proverbs and riddles also come from a wide variety of sources, and the riddles are so much fun; here's a Yoruba riddle: The master is inside the hut, but his beard remains outside. I'll put the answer down at the bottom.
So, whether you are interested in proverbs OR riddles OR love stories OR dilemma tales, you will find something to enjoy in this book.
by Alta Jablow
Answer to the riddle: FIRE, whose smoke escapes through the thatch of the hut.
Sunday, July 25, 2021
African Folktales at Internet Archive: African Dilemma Tales
Since I couldn't decide what area to focus on this week, I decided to do another week of anthologies that bring together stories from different parts of Africa, starting with this book about one of the most distinctive forms of African storytelling: African Dilemma Tales by William Bascom, just a click away at the Internet Archive.
This fabulous book provides detailed summaries of 168 dilemma tales from all over Africa, many of which appear in multiple versions. There is also a very helpful introduction that gives an overview of this type of story in which the audience participates at the end, debating the answer to a question about the story, such as which character was the wisest or bravest, etc., or else debating about how the story should end based on ethical or moral considerations. They are sometimes called "riddle tales," but unlike a riddle, the dilemma tale does not have a correct solution. Instead, the idea is that the dilemma offers members of the audience a chance to develop their thinking skills and also their ability to explain their thinking to others.
For each story, Bascom provides a summary along with information about the source of the story, plus a detailed bibliography in the back if you want to follow up on the story. For many of these stories, there is no published English version of the story, so Bascom's book becomes even more valuable for English-language readers.
Just to give you an example, here's a typical summary:
50:2. (Vai) A man caught a deer in his trap but released it when it promised to make him rich. It carried him near a large town and left him there. He gave cassava to a possum that promised to make him rich. It stole kola nuts from the king's house and felt a trail of them leading to the man, and he was arrested. The man caught two rats and gave them to a snake that promised to make him rich. It bit the king's son and then gave the man medicine to cure the boy. The king divided his town in two and gave half to the man. The three animals came to the man, each claiming credit for having made him rich. Which of the three -- the deer, the possum, or the snake -- made the man rich? (Ellis 1914: 230-231).
As you can see, even though the stories are just given in summary form, they are fun to read, and literally hundreds of them await you here in Bascom's book! You can also find more books by Bascom at Internet Archive, including his books about Ifa divination and about the Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria. You can find out more about his work and career at Wikipedia.
by William Bascom
Saturday, July 24, 2021
African Folktales at Internet Archive: Week 10
Here's the round-up for Week 10 as we get closer and closer to August! This week the focus was stories from central Africa... and I haven't decided yet on the focus for Week 11. I'll see what inspires me tomorrow! Meanwhile, here's a round-up of all the books from Week 10, plus the past round-ups: May - June -July.
by A. N. Tucker
retold by Mollie Clarke
by Phyllis Savory
by Joan Lexau
by R. E. Dennett
by Enènge A'Bodjedi
Friday, July 23, 2021
African Folktales at Internet Archive: Ndowe Tales
To finish up this week of book recommendations from Central Africa, I want to share this set of stories from Equatorial Guinea on the west coast of Central Africa: Ndòwé Tales by Enènge A'Bodjedi, just a click away at Internet Archive.
The book comes with a detailed introduction about the Ndowe people, their language and culture. As the author explains, he came to the United States to escape the Macias dictatorship, and while in the United States he began collecting stories from other Ndowe people so that he could help to preserve and share their stories in English.
There are some illustrations in the book too, along with notes for each story explaining Ndowe words and names, along with other cultural details and comparative notes about stories that are found in other African cultures. There are lots of animal stories, which are the stories of greatest interest to me! The story about the crocodile, for example, plays with the same motif of the kinship between crocodiles and chickens as in the story of The Crocodile and the Hen.
When Dr. A'Bodjedi published this book, he labeled it as volume 1, but so far another volume of stories has not appeared, but maybe it will. In the meantime, this book of stories awaits you at Internet Archive.
by Enènge A'Bodjedi
Thursday, July 22, 2021
African Folktales at Internet Archive: Why the Crab Has No Head
Continuing with the stories from Central Africa (see this week's posts on one page), I wanted to feature a really beautiful children's book written and illustrated by Barbara Knutson: Why the Crab Has No Head: An African Tale. It's just a click away at the Internet Archive!
Barbara Knutson was born in South Africa in 1959 where her parents were missionaries, and she then lived and worked in other African countries before settling in the United States where she worked primarily as both an author and illustrator; she died in 2005. You can find out more at her website.
The book alternates between beautiful full-page illustrations like this:
Plus text pages that are framed with illustrations:
This particular story comes from the Bakongo people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire). In the story, Knutson refers to a creator goddess with the name Nzambi Mpungu. Usually Nzambi Mpungu is gendered as a male divinity; see Wikipedia, for example, although even that is complicated (more about the meaning of mpungu here: N’zambi Ampûngu Tulêndo). Nzambi, on the other hand, is gendered as a female divinity. In Dennett's Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort, he discusses both Nzambi Mpungu (whom he takes to be a male god) and also Nzambi, and he provides a version of this crab story which I am assuming is Knutson's source (she does not cite a specific source in her book, but I am guessing that Dennett was the source, directly or indirectly). Here is Dennett's version of the story:
Nzambi had already given the crab a body and legs, and promised on the next day to give him a head. Then the crab sent invitations to all around to come and see Nzambi place his head on. And when they had all arrived, he was so proud that he could hardly walk straight. But Nzambi rebuked him for his great pride, and told those who were present that as a warning to them not to be self-glorious she would not give the crab a head. And thus it happens that when the crab wants to see where he is going, he has to lift his eyes out of his body.
If that is indeed Knutson's source, you can see what a great job she did of developing the story with some more details, as well as finding some beautiful artwork to add. Enjoy!
by Barbara Knutson
Wednesday, July 21, 2021
African Folktales at Internet Archive: The Magic Drum
As part of this week's focus on Central Africa, here is an absolutely marvelous book first published in 1961, and just a click away at the Internet Archive: The Magic Drum: Tales from Central Africa by W. F. P. Burton.
There are 75 stories from the Congo in the book, specifically from the Luba people. Burton was a missionary who arrived in Africa in 1914, and he was an early advocate for indigenous leadership in mission churches. He spent the rest of his life in Africa; he died in 1971. He was a prolific author and also an artist; you can find out more about him here: William F. P. Burton, and you can also find his memoir at Internet Archive: Missionary Pioneering in Congo Forests.
There are illustrations by Ralph Thompson; here is Nge the Leopard:
And Kalulu the Rabbit (my favorite!):
So, if you want a delightful and wide-ranging introduction to folktales of the Congo, this book is an excellent resource; enjoy!
by W. F. P. Burton
Tuesday, July 20, 2021
African Folktales at Internet Archive: Crocodile and Hen
Yesterday I wrote about a lovely children's book called Congo Boy, and today I also want to focus on a children's book based on a Central African folktale; this one is an animal story: Crocodile and Hen: A Bakongo Folktale by Joan Lexau, with very cute illustrations by Doug Cushman. It's just a click away at Internet Archive!
This book is presented as an "I Can Read Book," and the language of the book really is simple, and also completely charming.
Often when a book is very cute like this, the author has had to take a lot of liberties with the original source material (as Ashley Bryan did with Beautiful Blackbird), but in this case, the original folktale has exactly the same charming twists as in this modern children's book. You can find the original in this book, which is also available at Internet Archive: Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by R. E. Dennett, published in 1898.
You can read more about the Bakongo people at Wikipedia, and more about Dennett here: Richard Dennett (1857-1921).
I've pasted in the text of the story below so you can see for yourself, and maybe you will read Lexau's book so you can see just how she worked with the source material. It's really charming, and a good lesson in biology too.
Here's the story as recorded by Dennett:
WHY THE CROCODILE DOES NOT EAT THE HEN
There was a certain hen; and she used to go down to the river's edge daily to pick up bits of food. One day a crocodile came near to her and threatened to eat her, and she cried: "Oh, brother, don't!"
And the crocodile was so surprised and troubled by this cry that he went away, thinking how he could be her brother. He returned again to the river another day, fully determined to make a meal of the hen.
But she again cried out: "Oh, brother, don't!"
"Bother the hen!" the crocodile growled, as she once more turned away. "How can I be her brother? She lives in a town on land; I live in mine in the water."
Then the crocodile determined to see Nzambi (the great princess) about the question, and get her to settle it; and so he went his way.
He had not gone very far when he met his friend Mbambi (a very large kind of lizard). "Oh, Mbambi!" he said, "I am sorely troubled. A nice fat hen comes daily to the river to feed; and each day, as I am about to catch her, and take her to my home and feed on her, she startles me by calling me 'brother.' I can't stand it any longer; and I am now off to Nzambi, to hold a palaver about it."
"Silly idiot!" said the Mbambi; "do nothing of the sort, or you will only lose the palaver and show your ignorance. Don't you know, dear crocodile, that the duck lives in the water and lays eggs? the turtle does the same; and I also lay eggs. The hen does the same; and so do you, my silly friend. Therefore we are all brothers in a sense." And for this reason the crocodile now does not eat the hen.
Here is the crocodile with the lizard in Lexau's book:
Note. Compare a similar story from eastern Africa about "cousins" among the animals; this is my 100-word version.
The Lioness and the Antelope
Once here was a lioness who gave birth to a cub.
Then, after giving birth, she was hungry. Seven days passed, and she had not eaten.
"I must go hunt. I must get food," she thought, "or my cub and I will die."
She saw an antelope grazing and crept up on him, slowly, quietly.
Then the antelope realized the lioness was there. He turned his head and stared right at her. "Welcome, cousin!" said the antelope.
The lioness was ashamed and did not attack the antelope. She could not attack someone who was her cousin.
So the antelope survived.
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