Africa at the Internet Archive: Tales from the Okavango

Carrying on with this week's theme of stories from southern Africa, here is a book of stories from Botswana: Tales from the Okavango by Thomas J. Larson, just a click away at the Internet Archive.

These are stories of the Hambukushu people of the Okavango Delta of Botswana, which has been declared one of the "Seven Natural Wonders of Africa." 

You can find out more at Wikipedia, which is also the source for this photo: 

You will find animal stories here, including stories about the trickster hare who is called Kadimba. The drawings are by Rufus Papenfus, and they are beautiful; here is Nthoo the leopard:

And here is Ngando, the crocodile, with Mbii, the zebras:

Larson, born in Minnesota in 1917, was a cultural anthropologist who lived with the Hambukushu people in the 1950s; the book was published in South Africa in 1972. Larson has written academic books also; this is his book intended for a general audience, focusing on the sheer pleasure of the stories themselves. Larson also wrote a short novella, published in 1978, about a young Hambukushu man who is choosing whether to go to South Africa to work in the mining industry or to continue his schooling; that book is also at Internet Archive: Dibebe's Choice. Although the book is fiction, Larson explains that the story is based on that of a teenager whom he met while living among the Hambukushu in the 1950s. If any more of Larson's books show up at Internet Archive over time, I'll update this blog post.

Meanwhile, enjoy the Bantu tales here; this book is a great addition to the Bantu stories featured so far this week. 

Tales from the Okavango

by Thomas J. Larson