ABC 15. The Magic Tree

It's time for our third book of August for the Anansi Book Club; here's the August schedule for all the books, and please chime in at Twitter using the hashtag #AnansiBookClub to share your thoughts and ideas. This week we're looking at a book by a really intriguing children's book author, Gerald McDermott, who both wrote and illustrated this week's book: The Magic Tree: A Tale from the Congo. 

I'll have lots more to share in the updates this week because there is lots to say about this book, but of course I have to start with high praises for the amazing artwork. The story is as much, or maybe even more, about the images as it is about the text. Here's a two-page spread as the hero sadly leaves his home:

Adventures follow, but without words; just look at that crocodile!

Then, eventually, he returns home; the bright colors of his clothing show us how he has changed since he left:

But things are not going to end well for our hero. The abrupt ending is similar to that of a dilemma tale, where the story is meant to provoke discussion and reflection.

McDermott's source is Richard Edward Dennett's Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort, which contains 32 Bakongo folktales. Dennett includes two "vanishing wife" stories: "The Vanishing Wife" and "Another Vanishing Wife." It is that second story which is McDermott's source:

There were two sons of one mother, one named Mavungu, and the other Luemba. Luemba was a fine child, and grew up to be a handsome man. Mavungu was puny and miserable-looking, and as he came to man's estate became dwarfish and mean-looking. The mother always treated Luemba very well: but she maltreated Mavungu, and made him sleep outside the house beneath the mango-trees; and often when he approached her, to beg for food, she would throw the water she had cooked the beans in over his head.

Mavungu could not stand this bad treatment any longer; so he ran away into the woods, and wandered far away from home, until he came to a river. Here he discovered a canoe, and so determined to use it as a means of carrying him still further from his town. And he paddled and paddled, until he came to a huge tree, that overspread the river and prevented him from paddling. So he laid his paddle down, and caught hold of the leaves of the fuba-tree to pull his canoe along. But no sooner had he begun to pull the leaves of the fuba-tree, than he heard a voice, as if of a woman, faintly crying: "You are hurting me! Please take care."

Mavungu, wondered, but still pulled himself along.

"Take care! you are breaking my legs off," said the voice.

Still Mavungu pulled until a leaf broke off and instantly became changed into a beautiful woman. This startled Mavungu, so that he pulled many other leaves off the fuba-tree. Each leaf turned into a man, or a woman; his canoe was so full that he could not pull it any longer.

Then the first woman told him that she had come to be his wife, and comfort him; and Mavungu was no longer afraid, but was very happy. Then the wife appealed to her fetish, and said, "Am I to marry a man so deformed as this one is?" And immediately Mavungu became changed into a beautifully-formed man.

"Is he to be dressed like that?" she cried; and straightway his dress was changed.

In the same magical way did the wife build Mavungu a large house and town for his people, so that he wanted nothing that was needful to a powerful prince. And as people passed that way they were astonished at the transformation, and wondered where Mavungu had obtained his beautiful wife. And his mother and brother and whole family came to see him; and he treated them liberally and sent them away loaded with presents. But, having been expressly warned by his wife to say nothing to them as to the origin of his happiness, he left them in ignorance of that fact.

Then his people invited Mavungu to their town, but his wife advised him not to go, and so he stayed at home. But after having received many invitations he finally agreed, in spite of his wife's advice, to visit them. He promised, however, not to eat any of the food given to him. When he arrived in town, his mother placed poisoned food before him and urged him to partake thereof, but he refused. And then they asked. about his beautiful wife, and being taken off his guard, he replied, "Oh, when I left you I wandered through the woods."

But when he had got thus far he heard his wife's voice ringing through the woods:

"Oh! Ma-vu-ng-u-a-a-a! " and immediately he remembered, and got up and ran away home.

His wife was very cross with him, and told him plainly that she would not help him the next time he made a fool of himself.

Some time after this Mavungu again went to visit his family. His wife said nothing, neither asking him to stay at home, nor giving him her consent to his going. When he had greeted his mother and had partaken of food, the family again asked him to tell them from whence he had obtained his wife.

And he said, "When I left you, owing to your bad treatment, I wandered through the woods and came to a river. Dear me! where has my beautiful hat gone? "

"Your brother has taken it, to put it in the sun," said the mother, "but continue."

"I found a canoe with a paddle in it. Where has my coat gone?"

"Your brother has taken that also."

"And I paddled and paddled. Why have you taken my beautiful cloth? "

"To have it washed, of course."

"I paddled until I came to a big tree. Nay, why not leave me my shirt? And as I pulled off the leaves of the fuba-tree, they turned into my wife and her attendants. But I am naked!"

Then Mavungu remembered, and ran away to his town, only to find that it and his beautiful wife had disappeared. And when the people beard the whole story, they said it served Mavungu right for being so foolish as to want to please his people, who had been his eneinies all along, rather than please his wife, who had been so good to him.

The plot remains the same, but the story develops some additional details compared to the very spare version in McDermott, where the dramatic illustrations in turn supply their own details.

I was intrigued to see that Carter Woodson, the great African American historian and writer, chose this story from Dennett's book to include in his book African Myths, published in 1928, and intended for use by American schoolchildren. Woodson entitles the story "The Fairy Wife," and he adjusts the language here and there to make it easier for young readers. You can compare the opening of the two stories:

Dennett: There were two sons of one mother, one named Mavungu, and the other Luemba. Luemba was a fine child, and grew up to be a handsome man. Mavungu was puny and miserable-looking, and as he came to man's estate became dwarfish and mean-looking. 

Woodson:  There were two sons of one mother, one named Mavungu, and the other Luemba. Luemba was a fine child, and grew up to be a handsome man. Mavungu was puny and miserable-looking, and as he came to be a man he was very small and mean-looking. 

Woodson also includes two photographs and a drawing as part of the story in his book. It's nothing like the lavish art in McDermott's beautiful retelling, but it is Woodson's attempt, as a writer and educator nearly 100 years ago, to bring some visual dimensions into the story. So, for example, he includes this photograph of an African house to convey the sense of the fortunate Mavungu's fairy home:

You can find out more about Woodson's book here: Carter Woodson's African Myths.

In addition, I found one of those vintage educational videos (from 1969!) at the Internet Archive and also at YouTube which has an animated version too; here's the video:

If you are already familiar with McDermott's work, you'll recognize his art style immediately, and I'll be sure to include a couple more of his books in this post as this week progresses. 

If you are curious to learn more about his life and career, you can read about him at Wikipedia: Gerald McDermott. What I had not realized is that he originally got his start as a storyteller by making films, and those films were adapted into picture books, rather than the other way around. That certainly helps to explain the extraordinarily visual quality of his books!

Here's one of his early films, The Stonecutter, from 1960. This is one of my favorite folktales!

McDermott won the Caldecott Medal for his retelling of a Pueblo story: 

Arrow to the Sun, which you can find in both English and Spanish at the Internet Archive!

To finish up, I also wanted to mention two more of McDermott's books which won Caldecott honors: Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti and Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest. They are both available at the Internet Archive!

Meanwhile: enjoy! The Magic Tree awaits you (multiple copies) at the Archive:

The Magic Tree: A Tale from the Congo

by Gerald McDermott