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.

African Dilemma Tales

by William Bascom