African Folktales at Internet Archive: Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions

Yesterday I shared African Folklore: An Encyclopedia, and today I want to share another A to Z type of project, but it is not a big reference work; instead, it is a children's book, beautifully illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon: Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions by Margaret Musgrove, just a click away at the Internet Archive.

There are not folktales in this book, but it is a wonderful way to bring to life some of the peoples who tell those folktales, and of course these are just a few of the many hundreds of African cultures: Ashanti, Baule, Chagga, Dogon, Ewe, Fanti, Ga, Hausa, Ikoma, Jie, Kung, Lozi, Masai, Ndaka, Ouadai, Pondo, Quimbande, Rendille, Sotho, Tuareg, Uge, Vai, Wagenia, Xhosa, Yoruba, and Zulu. So, if any of those names are new to you, that means you will learn something from this book. 

Thanks to the gorgeous artwork by the Dillons, this book was a Caldecott Medal winner in 1977, and was the recipient of many other awards. Every detail in the illustrations is carefully chosen, as you can see in this note from the book's introduction: "The interwoven design at the corners of each frame is based on the Kano Knot, which symbolizes endless searching, a design originally used in the then-flourishing city of Kano in northern Nigeria during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries."

Here is the page about the Hausa people:

The Jie:

The Lowzi:

All the pages are so beautiful!

I've written about the Dillons before; you can see all the posts about them on one page, with each of these books just a click away at Internet Archive:

This A-to-Z book is a wonderful addition to that collection of books illustrated by the Dillons:

Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions

by Margaret Musgrove