African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Harold Courlander

Today just ran away from me, and I'm just now getting around to today's post... and I thought since I wrote about Daryl Dance's anthology of African American folklore last week, I should say something about this anthology by Harold Courlander: A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore.

You can get a sense of the scope of Courlander's book from the subtitle: The Oral Literature, Traditions, Recollections, Legends, Tales, Songs, Religious Beliefs, Customs, Sayings and Humor of Peoples of African Descent in the Americas.

So, what makes Courlander's collection distinctive is all the material he has included from the Caribbean, and especially from Haiti. 

Courlander also published these two books about Haitian folk culture:

The Drum and the Hoe: Life and Lore of the Haitian People

The Piece of Fire, and Other Haitian Tales

And, of course, you might remember the MANY books Harold Courlander wrote about African folklore; you can see a list of all the blogs post about his books here: books by Harold Courlander.

So, if you have a special interest in the variety of African traditions in the Americans, including the Caribbean, then Courlander's books are a great resource, and they are just a click away at the Internet Archive.

A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore

by Harold Courlander

The Drum and the Hoe:

Life and Lore of the Haitian People

by Harold Courlander

The Piece of Fire, and Other Haitian Tales

by Harold Courlander