African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Louisiana Folktales

After a week off (moving), I am glad to say that I am back with a beautiful book of African Diaspora stories from Louisiana, published all the way back in 1895: Louisiana Folktales, collected and translated (from Creole) by Alcée Fortier.

You'll find 36 stories here, and the English titles continue to use the Creole names of the characters, led by Compair Lapin a.k.a. Brer Rabbit: The Elephant and the Whale ~ Compair Taureau and Jean Malin ~ Compair Lapin and the Earthworm ~ Compair Lapin and Compair L'Ours ~ The Irishman and the Frogs ~ Compair Lapin and Madame Carencro ~ Compair Lapin and Mr. Turkey ~ Compair Bouki and the Monkeys ~ Mr. Monkey, the Bridegroom ~ The Tortoise ~ Compair Bouki, Compair Lapin, and the Birds' Eggs ~ The Dog and the Tiger ~ Compair Lapin's Godchild ~ Miss Mockingbird, Mr. Mockingbird, and Mr. Owl ~ Marriage of Compair Lapin ~ King Peacock ~ The Singing Bones ~ Jean Sotte ~ The Devil's Marriage ~ The Little Finger ~ The Statue of St. Anthony ~ The Little Boys and the Giants ~ The Men Who Became Birds ~ The Good Little Servant ~ The Basket of Flowers ~ John Green Peas ~ A Poor, Little Boy ~ The Tar Baby ~ Compair Bouki and Compair Lapin ~ The Horse of God ~ The Cunning Old Wizard ~ A Woman Changed Into a Monkey ~ The Talking Eggs ~ Grease ~ The Golden Fish ~ Give Me.

The book contains both the Creole text and an English translation, and you can find out more about Louisiana French Creole at Wikipedia. 

You can also find out more about Alcée Fortier at Wikipedia; he was of Creole descent himself and became a professor of French at Tulane University, studying Louisiana Creole and African American storytelling traditions.

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I was prompted to include this book today because I saw a tweet about this podcast from Sandman Stories based on one of these stories: EP 124: Brother Bull and Jean Malin.

And for more about dangerous bull suitors, and bear suitors too, see this earlier post: Callie Ann and Mistah Bear.

So, for some great rabbit stories, and more types of folktales too, Fortier's Louisiana folktales await you!

Louisiana Folktales

by Alcée Fortier

Also, I wanted to remind everybody that in May (soon!), the ABC Anansi Book Club will be starting up. You can find out more here at the website: Anansi Book Club. These are the books on the list for May: vote for your favorite to help decide what we will be reading! :-)