Thursday, November 25, 2021

Africa at the Internet Archive: Life of a South African Tribe

I'm carrying on today with public domain books that have been re-cycled into more modern books, this time with a South African collection that plays a part in a trickster tale anthology, both of which are available at the Internet Archive, just a click away.

The public domain book is The Life of a South African Tribe by Henri-Alexandre Junod.



Junod was a Swiss-born missionary who spent several decades in South Africa around Limpopo, in the northern part of the country bordering on Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. He arrived in Africa in 1889 at the age of 26, and returned to Switzerland in 1921, and during his retirement (he died in 1934), Junod published a series of books, a few of which, like this one, are available in English. You can find out more at Wikipedia.

As you can see, the cycle of "trickster hare" stories is an important part of Junod's book, and some of the material he collected inspired one of the stories in this modern anthology of trickster stories: Trickster Tales: Forty Folk Stories from Around the World by Josepha Sherman.


The collection opens with stories from Africa, and there are five different African tales drawing on a variety of sources (see notes in the back of the book for details). Here are the stories you'll find in Sherman's book: Why Anansi Owns Every Story, Hare and Tortoise, Glara Saves His Sons, Tortoise's Debt and Pig's Grunt, and Hlakanyana, plus stories about Anansi and Compere Lapin (Brer Rabbit) in the Americas section too!

The illustrations are by David Boston; here you can see Hare tying a hoe to Lizard's tail:


This is a wonderful book, and it is just one in a series of storytelling books from August House Publishers (one of my favorite publishers!), many of which you can find at Internet Archive; here's a search for August House. So many fun books to read and enjoy:


Sometimes people have a little more time for reading and relaxing around the holiday season, and if you are looking for books to read, you will find an unlimited supply awaiting you at the Internet Archive...


by Henri-Alexandre Junod



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