Africa at the Internet Archive: Tales of Temba

Following up on yesterday's post about Bantu stories from Botswana, I wanted to share this book of Bantu stories by Kathleen Arnott: Tales of Temba: Traditional African Stories, just a click away at Internet Archive.

This is a really interesting storytelling experiment, as Arnott explains: "All these stories are retold folk tales of the Bantu-speaking peoples of Africa. The name of the hero has been changed to Temba in each case, and the stories have been arranged in a sequence which tells of his adventures from babyhood to manhood."

The illustrations are by Tom Feelings, and they are very nicely done. Here, for example, is the illustration for the story of "The Hyena's Egg":

This shows grandfather, a storyteller:

Arnott, both in 1914, was a missionary in Nigeria from 1939 until 1951. There she met and married a scholar of African languages who later became a professor of West African languages at London University. Living in England, Arnott began her career as a writer. She wrote primarily about Africa, but I also wanted to mention an anthology by Kathleen Arnott that you can also find at Internet Archive: Animal Folk Tales around the World. 

So, if you are in the mood for stories (I'm always in the mood for stories), these books by Kathleen Arnott await you, and I'll be back tomorrow with more stories from southern Africa.

Tales of Temba:

Traditional African Stories

by Kathleen Arnott