African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Turtle Knows Your Name

I've updated this post with additional information about Bryan's source material. :-)

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For one last Caribbean story this week, I wanted to write about another book by the late, great Ashley Bryan; for this one, he based the story on a Caribbean folktale: Turtle Knows Your Name.

You will recognize Bryan's distinctive style right away of course: 

In the traditional folktale of this type, the "granny" is a more sinister figure, a dangerous witch whose name holds special powers. In some versions, the folktale serves as an origin story for how the turtle or crab, etc. got its shell: when the water-creature reveals the witch's name, she punishes it by throwing a calabash at it, and the calabash sticks and becomes the shell. Here's a version of the story in Philip Sherlock's Tales from the West Indies: "How Crab Got a Hard Back." This type of story is also found in Africa; here's a version from Burkina Faso, for example: "How the Crab Got Its Shell."

Bryan began from this story told by Henry Mars of in the harbor town Oranjestad in Saint Eustatius (to the southeast of the Virgin Islands), as collected by Elsie Clews Parsons: Turtle Tells Her Name. In this story, a wicked grandmother won't give her grandson any food unless he tells her her name. Finally one day the boy is able to tell her her name: Mapesiedo-makwindy-ai-ai-akwindy. The grandmother has to feed him but she is angry, so she wants to find out who told him her name. She asks the donkey, but the donkey just replies hee-haw; she asks the goat, and he just replies bah-bah, then the horse, and finally the turtle. The turtle admits that he told her name to the boy.

In Bryan's version, these events are part of the story, but their significance changes completely by the way he sets them up. The grandmother lovingly raises the boy, who has a very long name. The other children make fun of his long name, but the grandmother teaches him to be proud of his name. The boy hopes the animals might learn his name but none of the animals say his name back; they just make their usual animal sounds. But the turtle knows his name; the turtle heard the grandmother and the boy singing his name on the beach. One evening after dinner, the grandmother tells the boy he cannot have dessert unless he can tell her her name. He only knows to call her "granny," so he goes to find out her name from the animals. None of them can tell him, but then he asks the turtle, and the turtle tells him her name, but commands the boy not to say who told him. The grandmother happily gives the boy dessert and then goes to find out who told him her name. The animals just make their animal sounds, but then she asks the turtle, who explains that he hears all the names sung on the beach, and he remembers when she was a little girl and got her name. The grandmother goes home and makes the boy promise not to tell anyone her name; he will call her "granny" like before, and now she will call him "son."

So, the grandmother in this story is entirely nice, and the threat made with the food only involves dessert. The turtle is not punished either. To see more examples of the traditional story where the old woman is evil and dangerous, you can see all the versions Elsie Clews Parsons collected summarized here: Guessing a Name (she also cites African parallels).

As always, I am so impressed at how Ashley Bryan works so creatively with traditional materials, building on the twists and turns of the original story, while also going in his own way. There are some fun food details in Bryan's version here too; for example, the granny cooks up some fungi (fungee) which was part of yesterday's book too: Kallaloo! which features lots of Caribbean food.

Also, don't forget: we're reading Ashley's Bryan illustrated book of proverbs this week for Anansi Book Club, so you might take a look at that lovely book too: The Night Has Ears: African Proverbs.

So much great writing and art to enjoy, all just a click away at the Internet Archive, thanks to the power of Controlled Digital Lending.

Turtle Knows Your Name

by Ashley Bryan