African Folktales at Internet Archive: The Disappointed Lion

After a week of stories from southern Africa, I'll focus this week on stories from central Africa, starting with this book of stories from the Bari people of the South Sudan: The Disappointed Lion and Other Stories by A. N. (Archie) Tucker. The book is just a click away at Internet Archive.

You can see South Sudan on the map here:

The author collected these stories while living in South Sudan in the 1930s stories, and the introduction describes Bari village life during that time of social and cultural transition. Isaya Lukudu at the Loka mission was the author's main informant, along with another Bari man: Lokule Kwaje.

The stories also include music:

The illustrations are by John Farleigh, and are in a very simple and appealing style:

This is a book meant for children, but the author, Archie Tucker, was also a serious scholar of African languages. He was born in South African in 1904 and began his university studies there, but then took his Ph.D. in Linguistics at University College, London. He joined the faculty of their School of Oriental and Africa Studies in 1932 and taught in the SOAS for 39 years. You can read more about his career here. 

So, especially if you can sight-read music and sing along with the tunes here, this is a book you might enjoy! 

The Disappointed Lion and Other Stories
from the Bari of Central Africa

by A. N. Tucker