African Diaspora at Internet Archive: More Stories from Louisiana

After the "Lapin" stories from Louisiana yesterday, I wanted to follow up with three more wonderful collections of stories from Louisiana, each of which contains stories that are part of the African diaspora storytelling tradition in Louisiana, especially in both Creole and Cajun traditions.

The first book is Cajun and Creole Folktales: The French Oral Tradition of South Louisiana, edited by Barry Jean Ancelet:

The book uses a bilingual presentation, so here is the famous African folktale type of the well's guardian, a.k.a., the tar baby (click on the image for a larger view); this is 2. Bouki et Lapin et le bonhomme en coal tar / Bouki and Lapin and the Little Tar Man as told by Martin Latiolais of Catahoula:

There is information about each storyteller and their performance, along with comparative folktale-type notes.

Next up is Swapping Stories: Folktales From Louisiana, edited by Carl Lindahl, Maida Owens, and C. Renée Harvison.

This is also a serious work of storytelling scholarship with detailed information about each story and each storyteller. You can find a version of Lapin, Bouki, and the Tar Man in this book also: Le petit bonhomme en Coal Tar told by Wilson "Ben Guine" Mitchell, whom you can see in this photo:

And the third book I wanted to share is by a Cajun storyteller I've featured before in this blog, J. J. Reneaux. This book is Cajun Folktales.

Reneaux explicitly acknowledges the contribution of African American storytellers to Cajun storytelling traditions: "African motifs gradually blended into the Cajun melting pot; comic animal characters like the trickster Lapin and his dull-witted companion Bouqui wrestled over human-like problems, bringing laughter to the Cajuns' hard lives."

The book by Reneaux that I had written about at this blog before focused exactly on those animal characters: How Animals Saved the People: Animal Tales from the South, beautifully illustrated by James Ransome.

So if you've ever wondered about Creole and Cajun stories, plus other storytelling traditions from Louisiana, just jump on it; all these books are just a click away at the Internet Archive, thanks to the power of Controlled Digital Lending.

Cajun and Creole Folktales:

The French Oral Tradition of South Louisiana

by Barry Jean Ancelet

Swapping Stories: Folktales From Louisiana

by Carl Lindahl, Maida Owens, and C. Renée Harvison.

Cajun Folktales
by J. J. Reneaux