After yesterday's Hausa stories about Gizo the Spider, I wanted to share stories from yet another cultural tradition in western Africa, so here are some stories Kasilo the Spider from Mende storytellers in Liberia: Royal Antelope and Spider: West African Mende Tales by Marion Kilson, published in 1976 (and while that does not sound old to me, I need to keep reminding myself that it's almost 50 years ago...).
You can read about the Mende people, who live mostly in Sierra Leone, at Wikipedia; Kilson collected these stories in Sierra Leone in 1959 and 1960. She then returned to Sierra Leone in 1976 and did additional field work at that time. This book is the product of the work she did on those two stays, and in addition to the stories she provides an overview of Mende culture with lots of detail about Mende storytelling traditions in the opening chapters of the book.
There are 100 stories in the book, including the Mende text for all the stories, including lots of stories about Spider. For example: Spider and His Children, the famous story about how Spider got his narrow waist by having all his children pull him in different directions.
Even if you are just using the Mende text to learn the animals' names, it is so useful to have it there. So, whether you're reading in English or in Mende or both, there are lots of Spider stories here to enjoy and learn from, along with stories about the tiny royal antelope, another great trickster character from western Africa to whom I will have to dedicate a week at this blog post later on!
by Marion Kilson
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