African Diaspora at Internet Archive: The Great Snakeskin

After spending yesterday and the day before with the remarkable writer and poet John Agard, I wanted to feature three more of his books today. The first one is a folktale retold in the form of a play: The Great Snakeskin.

The lovely illustrations are by Jill Newton, who was born in Australia and is now based in the U.K. (more at her website):

As Agard explains at the opening of the book, he got the idea for this story from an indigenous legend of the people of Guyana who lived there before the Europeans came, bringing enslaved Africans with them. There has always been a powerful back-and-forth between African and indigenous storytelling traditions throughout the Americas and the Caribbean; I'll have something more to say about that next week with a book about the trickster rabbit stories of African Americans and the native peoples of the southeastern United States. Meanwhile, if you are curious about Agard's source, here it is: W. H. Brett's The Indian Tribes of Guiana, published in 1852.

The next is an AMAZING anthology of Caribbean poetry, with poems about the wind, the sea, the people, and the animals of the Caribbean, co-edited by John Agard and his partner, the poet Grace Nichols: Under the Moon and Over the Sea.

You will find that it is full of folkloric and mythological themes, like this poem about Mama-Wata by Grace Nichols:

And here's Vyanne Samuels writing on Obeah power:

And Charles Faustin with a poem about jumbies:

Those gorgeous illustrations are by Christopher Corr, an artist based in London (more at his website).

Finally, I also wanted to share one final book: it is not a book of folktales or legends, but is instead a book about books. Book's own autobiography! And it's brilliant! My Name Is Book.

The delightful illustrations are by Neil Packer, a British illustrator (more at his website). Here's his illustration for the part of the book about books-as-volumes, rolled up and then unrolled for reading:

This book is recent enough that ebooks are part of the picture too: books have been animal (sheepskin vellum), vegetable (papyrus), and mineral (stone and clay)... and now: digital!

So, if you have not encountered the mind-bending and joyful delight of John Agard and of Grace Nichols also, jump in! The Internet Archive has all these books just waiting for you, only a click away.

Meanwhile, I'll be off for the next week (moving! argh!)... but I hope to be back in action a week from now on Wednesday. See you then!

The Great Snakeskin

by John Agard

Under the Moon and Over the Sea

by John Agard and Grace Nichols

My Name Is Book

by John Agard