African Folktales at Internet Archive: Week 37

Yesterday I posted the last (for now) African folktale spreadsheet update, and today is the last (for now) weekly round-up of African folktale books....... because I'm going to start the African American and Caribbean folktale project tomorrow! It's not quite Black History Month yet (that starts on Tuesday, February 1), but this weekly structure helps me stay on track, and I'm also just super-excited about sharing all these beautiful African American and Caribbean folktale books. My own interest in African folktales started because I wanted to know about the origins of Brer Rabbit stories in the U.S. and Anansi stories in the Caribbean, and I have a HUGE LIST of African American and Caribbean folktale books at the Internet Archive that I want to share with everybody here!

When I started this project back in May, I focused on these daily blog posts to describe the books, the slideshow as a way to collect them all in one place along with the blog index page, and then Twitter being a way to share the books and connect with fellow readers. 

Then, along the way, I started writing the bibliography guide (you can see how that's going here: A Reader's Guide to African Folktales at the Internet Archive) and I also started by the story-by-story spreadsheet. In addition, I realized I could use the Wayback Machine as part of the project too, including important online resources (like Elizabeth Laird's incredible Ethiopian Folktale project) side by side with the books. As things finish up, I've blogged about 316 books here, and there are 545 books and articles included in the story-by-story spreadsheet which links to over 10,000 individual stories at the Internet Archive. I had no idea when I began that the project would grow so large, all thanks to the amazing resources that I found. It's been a complete joy to find all these materials and share them with others!

And now, based on what I learned from the African folktale project, I hope to do an even better job with the Caribbean and African American project right from the very beginning. Of course, I'll also be keeping an eye out for new African folktale books that show up at the Internet Archive too, which means I'll have the occasional African blog post too.

So, here's this week's round-up as usual, and you can see the round-ups for the previous months: May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December, plus January.

And I'll see you back here tomorrow for the new book-adventure that is about to begin! :-)

African Animal Tales

by Rogério Andrade Barbosa

The Trickster in West Africa:

A Study of Mythic Irony and Sacred Delight

by Robert Doane Pelton

Why Leopard Has Spots:

Dan Stories From Liberia

by Won-Ldy Paye and Margaret Lippert

The Rainmaker's Dog:

International Folktales

to Build Communicative Skills

by Cynthia Dresser

Sense Pass King: A Story from Cameroon

by Katrin Tchana

In the Rainfield: Who Is the Greatest?

by Isaac Olaleye

Tales from the Basotho

by Minnie Postma

African Folktales at Internet Archive: Week 36

So ends Week 36, and I'm getting near the end of this phase of writing about African books at the Internet Archive so that I can move on to African American and Caribbean books in February in celebration of Black History Month here in the U.S.

This week I reached a new milestone in the nine months of this project: I've now written up over 300 books at this blog; 308 to be precise! You can find them all on the Featured Books page.  And because one of the new books was the second volume of my own Tiny Tales, I was able to expand the story randomizer that you'll see down towards the bottom of this blog's sidebar: there are now 400 stories being randomized there, which is a LOT of random. :-)

Below you'll find the round-up of the books and posts from this past week, and I'll be back tomorrow with one more week of books from Africa. You can also browse all the round-ups from the year gone by: May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December, plus January.

So, here are this week's books and posts:

 Grains of Pepper: Folktales from Liberia

by Edythe Rance Haskett

Princess of the Full Moon

by Frédéric Guirma

Legends of Liberia

by Peter Pinney

Folk Tales of Liberia

by J. Luke Creel and Bai Gai Kiahon

West African Trickster Tales

by Martin Bennett

Folktales from the Gambia:

Wolof Fictional Narratives

by Emil Magel

Singing Tales of Africa

by Adjai Robinson

The Rich Man and the Singer:

Folktales from Ethiopia

by Mesfin Habte-Mariam

Tiny Tales from Africa:

The Animals, volume 2

by Laura Gibbs

African Folktales at Internet Archive: Week 35

So, this is the second weekly round-up of 2022, and it's Week 35 of this project. As I explained in the spreadsheet update this week, I'm thinking that I will finish up with writing about African books in the month of January so that I can move on to African American and Caribbean books in February in celebration of Black History Month here in the U.S. 

It was the connection between African and African American storytelling traditions that got me started on this whole project, so I've got some beautiful African American books that I am really excited to share!

Below you'll find the round-up of the books and posts from this past week (which turned out to focus on eastern Africa), and I'll be back tomorrow with more books. You can also browse all the round-ups from the year gone by: May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December, plus January.

And here are this week's books and posts:

African Tales:

A Barefoot Collection

by Gcina Mhlophe

African Folktales in the New World

by William Bascom

Amadu's Bundle:

Fulani Tales of Love and Djinns

by Malum Amadu

Why Goats Smell Bad

and Other Stories From Benin

by Raouf Mama

The Barefoot Book of Tropical Tales

by Raouf Mama

African Village Folktales

read by Brock Peters

Folk Tales of the Tribes of Africa

read by Eartha Kitt

African Folktales at Internet Archive: Week 34

Well, here it is: the first weekly round-up of 2022, and it's also Week 34 of this project. As I explained in the spreadsheet update this week, I'm thinking that I will finish up with writing about African books in the month of January so that I can move on to African American and Caribbean books in February, which will be a wonderful way to honor African American History Month!

So, below you'll find the round-up of the books and posts from this past week (which turned out to focus on eastern Africa), and I'll be back tomorrow with more books. You can also browse all the round-ups from the year gone by: May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December. 

Here are this week's books and posts:

When the Stones Were Soft:

East African Fireside Tales

by Eleanor Heady

Jambo, Sungura!

Tales from East Africa

by Eleanor Heady 

Winds and Lights: African Fairy Tales

by Prince Akiki K. Nyabongo

See So That We May See:

Performances and Interpretations

of Traditional Tales From Tanzania

by Peter Seitel

Wakaima and the Clay Man

and Other African Folktales

by E. (Ernest) Balintuma Kalibala

and Mary Gould Davis

Sukulu Ite Nguta:

The School with No Walls

by Vincent Kituku

 East African Folktales

from the Voice of Mukamba

by Vincent Kituku