African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Folklore from the Cape Verde Islands

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, Elsie Clews Parsons was struck by the nexus of shared stories she was finding in her work with African American storytellers in the southern U.S., and in the Bahamas, and also the stories told by immigrants from Cape Verde to New England in the United States. Today I'll focus on the stories that Parsons collected and published by those storytellers from Cape Verde: Folk-lore from the Cape Verde Islands. The book was published in two parts: Part I contains the stories, proverbs, and riddles in English translation, and Part II contains the stories in Portuguese Creole.

Parsons collected these stories in 1916 and 1917 from immigrants who had come from Cape Verde in Africa to New England in the United States; in other words, these are African American storytellers born in Africa, and they told their stories in Portuguese Creole. You can find out more about the Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa at Wikipedia; they achieved independence from Portugal finally in 1975.

As Parsons explains, while most of the words in the Creole are Portuguese, the grammar has been strongly influenced by African language elements, such as the lack of grammatical markers for gender in the pronouns, for number in the verbs, etc. Here's a sample:

Here is a list of the story titles and, as you can see, Parsons has followed her usual practice of providing compound names for the stories made up of different episodes: The Seven Robbers / Mock Crowing: Mock Sunrise: The Unyielding Trees / Picking Teeth: The Password: The Give-Away (In the Ashes) / Picking Teeth: The Password: God makes a Drum / To Heaven by Ladder: God Makes a Drum: The Password: The Give-Away (In the Ashes) / In the Cow's Belly / Picking Teeth: Too Swollen to Escape / The Lady Visitor / The Three Kids / The Three Kids: The Lady Visitor: The Give-Away (In the Ashes) / Detecting by Thirst: The Three Kids: The Lady Visitor: The Give-Away (In the Ashes): The Give-Away (The Shelter Shakes): Fatal Imitation / Donkey-Son / Pov' Minin' / Little Bald-Headed / Kidnap / Kidnap: Riding Wolf: Cutting the Rope / The Woman and the Friar / Big-John and Little-John / The Interrupted Dinner: Under the Hat / The Tables Turned / Holding up the Cave: Fatal Imitation: Picking Teeth: The Password: Take My Place / The Biggest Liar: Calf and Bull: The Man in the Sack / Eggs or Beans / Wolf's Nephew makes Wolf his Horse: The Give-Away (The Shelter Shakes): Mock Blood and Brains: Tell-Tale Grease / Wolf's Nephew makes Wolf His Horse: "Wolf's a Good Swimmer" / Frigajonsi' / The Tug-of-War / The Master Thief / The Master Thief: The King's Treasury / The Master Thief: Tar Man: The King's Treasure / The Master Thief: The King's Treasury: Tar Man: The Riddle Test / The Riddle Test / Tar Baby / The Three Rogues / Dish, Donkey, and Whip / The Scornful Princess / The Chosen Suitor: The Skillful Companions / Bartering Mothers: Buried Tail / The Rival Brothers: Who gets Angry First: Buried Tail / Who gets Angry First: The Brave Boy / The Brave Boy / The Man who Understood Animals / Who Eats Most: Escape up the Tree / Escape up the Tree: The Singing Gourd / Escape up the Tree / Escape up the Tree: Without Fear / Without Fear / The Fig-Tree / The Escape / Always No / Fish-Lover / White-Flower / Bluff / The Girl who Did Not Like Men / The Youth and his Horse / Good Maria and Bad Maria / The Jealous Husband: The Boy and his Dog / The Girl without Hands, Breasts, or Eyes / Compadre Death / Are Monkeys People? / The Worn-Out Animals / The False Diviner / Uncle Caramba / The Doctor and the Devil / Mr. May / The Changed Note / The Two Rats / His Best Friend / The Case the Sparrow Won / Sir John Big-Rat / The House the Old Man was to Build / The Three Brothers-in-Law: His Life in an Egg / The Two Friends: His Life in an Egg / The Division: His Life in an Egg / The Faithful Friend / The Hair Ladder: The Faithful Friend / The Poor Friend and the Rich / Brother and Sister / The Usurper / Horns from Figs / As Broad as He Was Long / The Wonderful Travellers / The Sack of Lies / The Princess who Asks Riddles: The Sack of Lies / The Princess who Asks Riddles / The Stolen Ring / Seven Tongue-Tips / The Two Brothers / Dutiful and Undutiful / The Princess who Groans / Dutiful and Undutiful: The Princess who Groans / The Princess who Groans: Man or Woman? / Half-Wit / Carl', Leit', Liamor / The Shoes that were Danced to Pieces / Dividing the Heirlooms: The Shoes that were Danced to Pieces / The Envious Sisters / The Three Questions / The Boy who Cannot Stay Awake / The Race / The Birds Take Back their Feathers: The Threat Midway: Playing Dead / The Birds Take Back their Feathers: The Threat Midway: Playing Dead: The Plug / Wolf's Share: The Threat Midway: Playing Dead / The Stupid Brother: Incriminating the Other Fellow: The Threat Midway / The Boy who Gave Life / The Evil Eye / The Biggest Liar: Foiled: Stealing the Road: The Evil Eye / Pedr' transforms: Playing Dead / A Storm Coming / How to Eat Monkey / The Things that Talked / Seven Suits of Clothes / The Girl who would Dance / The Battle of the Enchanters / The Test / The Test: The Sleeper King / The Grateful Spirit / Dividing the Child / The Lost Ring / Dividing the Cheese / The Three Cedrats / The Magic Sword / The Singing Infant / Playing Godfather / The Unfilial Son / The Magic Ship: The Three Temptresses / Erladin / The Dog Captain / The Sea-Captain's Wife / Buried in the Cornfield / Confidential / The Parrot in Trouble / Goose and Cat Entertain: Fish Medicine.

And since I'm writing here today about the Cape Verde storytellers of New England one hundred years ago, of course I want to mention also the great Len Cabral, an African American storyteller of today who is descended from the people who came from Cape Verde to the United States all those years ago (his grandparents came from Cape Verde; Wikipedia). Cabral is the author of this wonderful storytelling book: Len Cabral's Storytelling Book which is also just a click away at the Internet Archive.

You can also find many of his videos at YouTube, including this recent performance where he reminisces about growing up in New England: Len Cabral's A World of Winter Tales.

As Len Cabral's career shows, the heritage of African storytelling by Cape Verde islanders in the United States lives on and is part of our national storytelling heritage, and you can learn more about the Cape Verde people and their stories in Parsons' wonderful book. I'll be back tomorrow with more of Parsons' work documenting stories told in both English and in French Creole in the Caribbean.

Folklore from the Cape Verde Islands

by Elsie Clews Parsons