A Look at Laura's Bookshelf: Africa at the Internet Archive: Why Goats Smell Bad

Earlier this week I wrote about Barefoot Books (a fabulous publisher of story books), and that reminded me that I need to write a post about Raouf Mama, who is the author of these two books: The Barefoot Book of Tropical Tales and also Why Goats Smell Bad and Other Stories From Benin, both of them just a click away at the Internet Archive!

Raouf Mama is a storyteller from Benin and also a professor of literature at Eastern Connecticut State University. Why Goats Smell Bad is a collection of 20 different folktales from Benin, with wonderful woodcuts by Imna Arroyo (b. 1951), a Puerto Rican artist who is also on the faculty at Eastern Connecticut State University. Here are links to the individual stories: The Unwanted Child / The Twin Princesses / The Prince and the Orphan / The Orphan and the Leper / The Magic Drum / The Song of the Spoiled Child / The Dance of Poverty / The Greedy Father / When the River Becomes the Big Hole / Can You Save the Day? / The Girl Who Brought the Rainy Season and the Dry Season / The King Who Would Be God / How Chameleon Became a Teacher / The Wrath of the Hawk / How Hare Drank Boiling Water and Married the Beautiful Princess / The Origin of Crocodiles, Fish, and Other Water Creatures / Why Goats Smell Bad / The Name-guessing Contest / How Yogbo the Glutton Was Tricked / How Yogbo the Glutton Met His Death.

Tropical Tales is a collection of folktales that includes three African tales, along with stories from South Asia and the Caribbean, with illustrations by British artist Deirdre Hyde. Here are links to the three African stories: The Magic Drum / Why Cat and Dog Do Not Get Along / Leopard's Argument with Monkey.

To find out more, listen in on this interview Mama did for Connecticut Public Radio: The Sage of Storytelling: Raouf Mama.