African Folktales at Internet Archive: African Mythology A to Z

Thanks to a suggestion from @MythicAfricans (a must-follow Twitter account for African art and stories), I'm going to spend this week looking at some useful African reference books that are available at Internet Archive, starting with African Mythology A to Z by Patricia Ann Lynch, just a click away, both the first edition of 2004 and the second edition published in 2010.

Patricia Lynch is also the author of a similar project for Native American traditions which you can also find at Internet Archive: Native American mythology A to Z.

Both of these volumes are designed for a general audience in mind, with short entries; the entire African mythology book is just 168 pages in the first edition, 176 pages in the second edition. So, unlike an encyclopedia written for specialized research scholars, this is actually a book you might read just for pleasure. The entries are highly readable, and there are many photographs included, as you can see in this screenshot of the thumbnail view at Internet Archive:

There are not references provided in the individual entries, but there is a bibliography in the back, and of course you will be able to find many of the books in that bibliography at Internet Archive too.

There is also an index, but one of the best things about using a digital book online is that in addition to the printed index, you can search the text and browse through the text by advancing from one search results to the next to the next. So, for example, searching on "tortoise" helps me to find the entry for Mokele, which includes a story featuring the tortoise as a character:

So, this is definitely a reference book that is worth bookmarking, and it's also a nice book just to read, with many stories in the entries to learn about and enjoy!

African Mythology A to Z

by Patricia Ann Lynch