African Folktales at Internet Archive: The Ogress and the Snake

For today's book of stories from eastern Africa, I'm really excited to return to an author I've written about before at this blog: Elizabeth Laird, and her book The Ogress and the Snake, and Other Stories from Somalia, which is just a click away at Internet Archive:

There are eight stories in the book: The Ogress and the Snake, How the Cat Became Woman's Friend, How the Dog Became Man's Friend, Deya Ali and the Thieves, The Sun and the Raven, The Good Prince, Slippery Hirsi and Crooked Kabaalaf, and The Miraculous Head. And see below for MANY more stories...

As the author explains in the introduction, she first visited Somalia in the late 1960s. Then, thirty years later, she returned to Visit the Somali region of Ethiopia, and she collected stories in the town of Jigjiga. She talked with many storytellers there, whom she writes about in the Introduction. The title story of the book, for example, she learned from Ikran, the daughter of a woman named Hukun Hussein Fura... and see below for more stories by these same narrators!

The illustrations are by Shelley Fowles (an artist from South Africa who now lives in the United Kingdom), and they are very charming, as you can see:

You can find out more about Elizabeth Laird's career at this British Council webpage: Elizabeth Laird, and she also has a website: Elizabethlaird.co.uk. 

I was also very pleased to learn that she is at Twitter: @EMRLaird.

Here is the book of hers that I featured previously at this blog: When the World Began: Stories Collected in Ethiopia.

And amazingly, while writing this post, I learned that in addition to the stories in that book, Laird has published online all 300 of the stories that she collected in Ethiopia, with both the English and Amharic versions available here: Ethiopian Folktales. That website includes additional stories from Somalia:

Just click the flag to change to the Amharic presentation:

You will recognize many of the same storytellers in that list there, with many more of their stories to read! Here is a picture from the website of Laird collecting stories from a group of midwives in Somalia:

In addition, I also learned that she has written a book about her experiences collecting stories in Ethiopia, and it is available at Internet Archive also: The Lure of the Honey Bird: The Storytellers of Ethiopia.

So, ENJOY! Not only are there lovely stories available in this book at Internet Archive, you can also find even more stories to read at Laird's website.

The Ogress and the Snake

and Other Stories from Somalia

by Elizabeth Laird