African Folktales at Internet Archive: Hausa Tales and Traditions

As I mentioned yesterday, the focus for Week 15 will be stories from Nigeria, and I have to begin with the monumental first volume of Hausa stories translated into English by Neil Skinner: Hausa Tales and Traditions, which is just a click away at Internet Archive:

You will find over 250 stories in this book, starting with animal stories (and Spider gets to go first among the animals), followed by stories about human characters and types, then moralizing stories, stories of men and women, a whole section of dilemma tales, and then stories involving legal disputes.

As the title page explains, this is part of a 3-volume series. Dr. Skinner had a very hard time finding a way to publish volumes 2 and 3, but they were eventually published. Those two volumes are not available at the Internet Archive (yet), but there are used copies circulating at Abe and other used booksellers online. Volume 2 contains more tales (tall tales, adventures, aetiological stories, etc.), while Volume 3 contains historical traditions.

Skinner is translating the work of Frank Edgar, who published a monumental collection of Hausa stories (3 volumes of Tatsuniyoyi Na Hausa), and who also left behind a massive collection of unpublished Hausa writings. Edgar's work began in 1910, translating materials that he received from J. A. Burdon, and then Edgar himself began collecting Hausa stories in Nigeria, intended to provide British civil servants with materials for studying Hausa language and learning about Hausa culture. Later this week I'll have something to say about A. J. N. Tremearne who was also involved in this British colonial project, along with R. S. Rattray (whose Ashanti work I've featured earlier here at the blog). 

One of the fascinating aspects of Hausa folklore is the Islamic element. The Hausa were the largest ethnic group in northern Nigeria, in close contact with northern Africa, and thus Middle Eastern cultures, along with the cultures of the Sudan. For more about that, see the detailed foreword to Skinner's book by M. G. Smith (Michael Garfield Smith) which provides an overview of Hausa culture and history. (And Smith is a remarkable scholar too; you can find out more about him at Wikipedia.)

If you want to see the Hausa texts by Frank Edgar, you can hop on over to Hathi Trust, where all three volumes are available (being in the public domain): 

There is an index in the back of Skinner's book that you can use to locate the stories in Edgar's Hausa texts that correspond to Skinner's English translations. 

For example, here is Gizo, the spider, and Zaki, the lion, as recorded by Edgar:

So, enjoy the treasure-trove of stories in Skinner's book at Internet Archive, knowing you can also find the Hausa texts online too, all just a click away thanks to the power of digital libraries.

Hausa Tales and Traditions

by Neil Skinner