African Folktales at Internet Archive: Talking Animals

Yesterday I wrote about a book where a modern author salvaged stories from a very old, very racist book from South Africa in order to create something useful for a new audience (Berger's Black Fairy Tales), and today I want to write about a different kind of experiment where a modern anthropologist who did field work in Africa in 1929-1930 went on to write both an anthropological field report which he then repurposed for a lovely children's book. You can find Wilfrid Hambly's anthropology book at Internet Archive here: The Ovimbundu of Angola; it was published in 1934 (the folktales begin on p. 255).

Then you can also find his children's book online; it's been digitized by the great people at the New York Public Library Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture: Talking Animals, published in 1949.

In yesterday's book, Berger's goal was to retell stories from Africa for an audience of Black children. In Hambly's case, he is writing as a museum-based anthropologist who wants to bring the purpose of the museum's work to life for young readers; you can read about that in the preface to the book (click on the image for a larger view):

The illustrations are by James Porter; for example, here are the tortoise and hare getting into trouble together:

I haven't found a lot of books like this; scientific anthropologists are not always the best storytellers for children, and children's books do not build your scholarly reputation (just the opposite probably). But there are two other similar projects I've written about so far here at the blog, so I'll take the opportunity to mention them again: A. N. (Archie) Tucker's book The Disappointed Lion based on his fieldwork in South Sudan, and A. J. N. Tremearne's Fables and Fairy Tales for Little Folk, or Uncle Remus in Hausaland based on his fieldwork in Nigeria, both of which are available at Internet Archive.

The Disappointed Lion

Fables and Fairy Tales for Little Folk,

or Uncle Remus in Hausaland

Both anthropological field reports and children's books are important IMO, so I was really glad to discover that Wilfrid Hambly was the author of both kinds of books, and I am also glad that you can find both of his books online, one at Internet Archive, and the other at the wonderful New York Public Library. Yay for all the digital libraries!

Talking Animals

by Wilfrid Hambly

The Ovimbundu of Angola

by Wilfrid Hambly