Africa at the Internet Archive: Tales and Proverbs of the Vandau

For today's recommendation, I'm going to highlight an article, rather than a book: Tales and Proverbs of the Vandau of Portuguese South Africa by  Franz Boas and C. Kamba Simango, which was published in the Journal of American Folklore in 1922. This article is convenient to access as a stand-alone item at the Internet Archive, so it is just a click away:

The article contains twenty stories from the Ndau people of Mozambique (what was then Portuguese South Africa), making it a valuable source. Even more importantly, it contains the Ndau text together with the English translation. Even for a reader like me, it's useful to have the original text so that you can check the names of the animals. Shulo is the Chindau name for the hare (rabbit) here, Zinthede is the baboon, and so on. The article also contains a selection of proverbs in addition to the folktales.

You might recognize the names of one of the authors here: Franz Boas was one of the most important anthropologists of the 20th century; you can read all about his life and career at Wikipedia. He is best known for his work with indigenous American peoples, especially in the Pacific Northwest, but he was also a great champion of both African and African American culture. Zora Neale Hurston was one of Boas's students in the 1920s, and the co-author of this article, Kamba Simango, was also one of Boas's students. 

Simango was born in Mozambique in 1890 and spent most of his life there as a missionary and educator; he died in 1966. In came to the United States in 1914 to study at the Hampton Institute in Virginia, and in 1919 he went to New York City to study with Boas at Columbia. This photo by Mário Pinto de Andrade (not dated) shows Simango playing a kalimba (lamelophone):

Here is a page from Simango's autobiography written in Chindau:

I included some stories from this article, retold in 100-word versions, in my Tiny Tales from Africa book (free ebook!). Here are two of them, one about the trickster rabbit and the other about the trickster tortoise:

The Rabbit, the Baboon, and the Peanuts

Rabbit and Baboon raided a peanut-garden.

As they feasted, Rabbit said, “Let’s play a game with our fingers!”

“No,” said Baboon. “I’m using my fingers to eat.”

“With our mouths!”

“No, I’m using my mouth.”

“With our eyes!”

“No, I’m using my eyes.”

“With our tails!”

“Okay,” Baboon agreed, “but you’ll have to show me how to play this game.”

“It’s easy,” said Rabbit as he grabbed Baboon’s tail and tied it to a stake in the ground. Then Rabbit shouted, “Come, people! Come, dogs! Baboon’s stealing your peanuts!”

While the people and dogs attacked Baboon, Rabbit ran away, laughing.

The Elephant and the Tortoise

“You’re very short,” Elephant told Tortoise.

“True,” said Tortoise. “But I can jump over you! Come here tomorrow and I’ll show you.”

In the night, Tortoise dug two holes; he hid his brother in one of them.

The next day, Elephant came.

“Stand here,” Tortoise said, placing him between the holes. “Now close your eyes!”

Tortoise hid, while his brother emerged. “Open your eyes! I jumped over,” he said.

Elephant was amazed.

“I’ll do it again,” Tortoise’s brother said. “Close your eyes!”

Then he hid and Tortoise emerged. “Look! I jumped back!”

“You really can jump,” Elephant admitted.

Tortoise smiled.

So, thanks to the easy availability of this article at Internet Archive, you can compare my tiny versions to the original stories and even look at the Ndau text too; its all just a click away. 

Here are links to all the individual folktales too: Baboon and Hare / Baboon and Hare (again) / Hare and Baboon / The Digging of the Well by the Animals / Hare and Turtle / Hare and Duiker (two versions) / Lion and Hare (two versions) / The Death of Hare / Turtle and Elephant / Why the Elephant Lacks a Tail / Hyena and the Moon / Tale about the Death of the People / Nshunshu / Two Men Who Married Two Sisters / The Cure of a Jealous Person / The Story of the Crocodile / The Mistress and Her Slave / The Three Brothers and the Revived Princess / The Sky People / The Hyena and the Crane