Thursday, August 26, 2021

African Folktales at Internet Archive: Yoruba Legends

Yesterday I featured two books of Yoruba legends published in the 1960s, and today I want to go back in time to a book published in 1929: Yoruba Legends by M. I. Ogumefu, just a click away at Internet Archive:


Although the book is not in the public domain (yet), you will find it reproduced at many websites, including a handy digitized version at Sacred Texts Archive. There are also numerous knock-off print versions, presumably created using the version digitized at Sacred Texts.

After diligent searching, I discovered the identity of this author, and it came as quite a surprise, because she is the author of another book that I own... but I had no idea that M. I. Ogumefu was also Margaret Baumann, and vice versa. M. I.  Ogumefu was Margaret Irene Ogumefu (1905–1990), born in Manchester, Lancashire, England as Margaret Irene Sarah Baumann. She later married Michael Gladstone Ebun Ogumefu, who was from Lagos, Nigeria (that must be quite a story of its own!). He died in 1927, just 25 years old, and after his death she published this book of Yoruba Legends (the book is dedicated to him), plus a book entitled Ajapa the Tortoise under her maiden name Margaret I. Baumann. What's more, she also published dozens of romance novels under the name Marguerite Lees, making her living as a professional writer. (I knew about Margaret Baumann; I didn't know about Marguerite Lees!)

Her book Ajapa the Tortoise is not available at Internet Archive, but it is available as a Kindle book. It was also published in 1929, the same year as Yoruba Legends, and it will be entering the public domain soon, so I expect we will see it at many websites when that happens.


The Yoruba Legends book contains 40 stories; here is the table of contents:


As you can see, the book ends with a cycle of Tortoise stories! So, even though her Ajapa book is not available at Internet Archive, you can read some of the Ajapa stories that she knew here. I'm guessing she learned all these stories from her husband; perhaps there is someone out there who knows more about her life story.

Meanwhile, Yoruba Legends by "M. I. Ogumefu" is just a click away at Internet Archive:

Yoruba Legends
by M. I. (Margaret Irene) Ogumefu





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