Africa at the Internet Archive: Animals and Tricksters

It feels weird to think about how this is the last week of posting African folktale books (I want to switch over to African American and Caribbean books in February), but here goes! Week 37 starts with another book of stories from western Africa: African Animal Tales by Rogério Andrade Barbosa (and translated from Portuguese by Feliz Guthrie).

Rogério Andrade Barbosa is a Brazilian author, and he wrote this book based on his experiences living in Guinea-Bissau (formerly Portuguese Guinea) as a United Nations volunteer. In retelling these 10 animal stories, Barbosa has created human frametales that set up the storytelling scene. For example, the story of "The Rain-God's Vengeance" opens with the story of a hippo hunt, while the story of "Why Dogs Sniff Each Other" is presented as the story a grandfather tells to his grandson. You can find out more about the author at Wikipedia (Portuguese).

Here is a list of the story titles and links directly to them: The Considerate Fly / The Tortoise and the Leopard / The Serpent's Bride / The Rain God's Vengeance / The Cassolo Bird and the Bee / Why Dogs Sniff Each Other / The Cunning of the Tortoise / The Tortoise and the Jackal / The Hawk and the Eagle / The Cat and the Rat.

The illustrations by Ciça Fittipaldi are inspired by Yoruban art traditions:

I also wanted to share another book focused on western Africa; this is not a collection of stories but instead a study of the trickster figure: The Trickster in West Africa: A Study of Mythic Irony and Sacred Delight by Robert Doane Pelton.

Robert Doane Pelton (1935-2020) was a Catholic priest who studied at McGill University and then completed a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago Divinity School. In this book based on his 1974 doctoral dissertation, Pelton examines four different West African traditions: Ananse stories from the Ashanti of Ghana, Legba stories from the Fon of Benin, Eshu stories from the Yoruba of Nigeria and Ogo-Yurugu stories from the Dogon of Mali. He also provides an introductory overview of scholarship on trickster traditions, plus his own theory of the trickster as inspired by these African traditions.

You can find other important studies of the trickster at the Internet Archive also, including From Trickster to Badman: The Black Folk Hero in Slavery and Freedom by John W. Roberts, The Trickster: A Study in American Indian Mythology by Paul Radin, and Trickster Makes This World by Lewis Hyde.

Trickster stories are my favorites, as you may have guessed, especially the African animal tricksters like Spider, Tortoise, Rabbit, Mouse-Deer, Mantis, and all the rest!

African Animal Tales

by Rogério Andrade Barbosa

The Trickster in West Africa:

A Study of Mythic Irony and Sacred Delight

by Robert Doane Pelton.