Wednesday, December 8, 2021

Africa at the Internet Archive: Ethiopian Folktales

For the past seven months, I've been featuring African story collections in the form of books and articles at the Internet Archive, but today I want to do something different: this post is about a website, Ethiopian Folktales, with close to 300 folktales in English and in Amharic, plus some audio recordings also.

With a web project like this, you always worry if the site might just disappear someday, but thanks to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, this website has been archived! Hopefully the site will stay up but, if it should go dark, there are copies of all the stories, and even the audio, stored for the long term at Internet Archive. So, much like with digital lending, I'm depending on the Internet Archive here for the digital archiving that can provide ongoing access to this amazing story resource.

You can access the website directly at this address: EthiopianFolktales.com


And the same webpages are also available via the Wayback Machine (you can see the history of the Wayback Machine copies of the site in the timeline above the site). 


The Internet Archive version even captures the audio mp3 files; just click on what appears as the "download" link for audio on the archived pages, and you can listen to the archived mp3 audio. Here's an example of the archived audio.


This project was led by Elizabeth Laird who worked with storytellers and translators, all of whom are credited individually at the website, in trips to different regions of Ethiopia in 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2001. The site is organized geographically, with the stories grouped by regions:


You might recognize Elizabeth Laird's name from previous posts; she is the author of these three excellent books about Ethiopia and Somalia, all three of which are available at the Internet Archive. You can find out more about her life and work at Wikipedia, and here are links to previous posts about her books of African stories:


And now, thanks to the Wayback Machine at Internet Archive, Elizabeth Laird's website collection of close to 300 Ethiopian folktales is also available there, just in case it should ever become inaccessible at its .com address.

Below I have a mix of links: the regional links go to the pages at Elizabeth Laird's website, but the actual story links go to the Internet Archive copy, and I'll be adding all those links to my African story links spreadsheet (that update will be ready on Friday). So many stories to read and enjoy! If you see a title you're interested in, or a region you want to learn more about, just click and go right to the story (as saved at Internet Archive):

Amhara: The Cub and the Kid / The Leopard and the Bushbuck / The Poor Man and the Rich Man / The Hyena’s Lips / Sinzero / The Dog and the Donkey that Brayed / The Ox and the Donkey / The Robber / Wardit the Mule / The Murderer’s Wife / The Two Lovers / Still Mad / The Lord Saves / Berio Delala, a True Story / Celebrating the Revolution / Money, My Son / The Dinner Stew / Kumche Ambau and the Football Field / The Daughter Taught her Mother to Give Birth / The Dog and the Donkey / Bullets, Let Alone Balls / Abba Hanna or The Greedy Man / Aleka Gebre Hanna and the Wise Lady / Aleka Gebre Hanna and the Donkey Driver / Aleka Gebre Hanna and the Medicine Man / Evil Eyed Man / Aleke Gebre Hanna / The Rat and the Frog / Marriage Chain / Mother Ape and Father Monkey / The Wedding Day of Mrs Rat and Mr. Cat / Friendship between Rats and Frogs / The Mourning of the Hyenas / Three Deaf People / Ras Hailu in Geneva / King Tewodros and the Thief / King Tewodros and the Dead Guard / The Fruit of the Land / Sun and Rain / Emperor Yohannes and King Tekla Haimanot / The Mercy of Haile Selassie / The Foolish Farmer / The Stolen Meat / The Foolish Parents / The King of the Animals / The Baboon and the Student / The Trees / The Lazy Student


(and if you're reading this post, Hector: there are 22 stories with hyenas in the title... and probably some more hyenas lurking in other stories too!)


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