As you can see, Zomo the Rabbit is on the run from the other animals who are all fed up with his tricks and pranks. Here's how the cover looks wrapped around the book (photo of my copy at home); the illustrations are by Peter Warner:
You will find 11 stories in this book that the author heard from Hausa storytellers during his time in Nigeria. The animal characters have their Hausa names throughout: Zomo is the rabbit, Giwa is the elephant, Kunkuru is the turtle, etc. You can read more about the Hausa people at Wikipedia.
Hugh Sturton is actually a pseudonym; the author's real name is Hugh Anthony Stephen Johnston. He was born in 1913 and He served in the British Civil Service in Nigeria from 1936-1940 and 1945-1960; during World War II he was a pilot in the Royal Air Force. Under his real name, H. A. S. Johnston, he published a more scholarly book: A Selection of Hausa Stories, as part of the Oxford Library of African Literature series, but the Archive does not have a copy of that book (yet).
So, for your reading pleasure, here is the trickster rabbit of western Africa: enjoy!
by Hugh Sturton
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