African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Jamaica Anansi Stories

Yesterday I wrote about Martha Warren Beckwith's book of Jamaican folklore (including proverbs), and I wanted to follow up today with her monumental study of Anansi stories in Jamaica: Jamaica Anansi Stories, just a click away at the Internet Archive. (The title page is a little skewed, but don't worry: the rest of the book is fine.)

The book contains over 150 folktales (many of them in multiple versions), plus a huge collection of riddles too! Here is a list of stories with links to their pages at the Internet Archive: Tying Tiger / Tiger as Substitute / Tiger as Riding-horse / Tiger's Sheep-skin Suit / Tiger Catching the Sheep-thief / Tiger's Breakfast / Eggs and Scorpions / Tiger's Bone-hole / The Christening / Eating Tiger's Guts / Throwing Away Knives / Grace Before Meat / Day-time Trouble / New Names / Long-shirt / Shut Up in the Pot / House in the Air / Goat on the Hill-side / Dog and Dog-head / Tacoomah's Corn-piece / Anansi and the Tar-baby / Inside the Cow / Cunnie-more-than-father / The Duckano Tree / Food and Cudgel / The Riddle / Anansi and Brother Dead / Brother Dead and the Brindle Puppy / The Cowitch and Mr. Foolman / Dry-head and Anansi / The Yam-hills / The Law Against Back-biting / Fling-a-mile / But-but and Anansi / Tumble-bug and Anansi / Horse and Anansi / Anansi in Monkey Country / Curing the Sick / Anansi, White-belly and Fish / Goat's Escape / Turtle's Escape / Fire and Anansi / Quit-quit and Anansi / Spider Marries Monkey's Daughter / The Chain of Victims / Why Tumble-bug Rolls in the Dung / Why John-crow Has a Bald Head / Why Dog Is Always Looking / Why Rocks at the River Are Covered With Moss / Why Ground-dove Complains / Why Hog Is Always Grunting / Why Toad Croaks / Why Woodpecker Bores Wood / Why Crab Is Afraid After Dark / Why Mice Are No Bigger / Rat's Wedding / Cockroach Stories / Hunter, Guinea-hen and Fish / Rabbit Stories / The Animal Race / The Fasting Trial / Man Is Stronger / The Pea That Made a Fortune / Settling the Father's Debt / Mr. Lenaman's Corn-field / Simon Tootoos / The Tree-wife / Sammy the Comferee / Grandy-do-an'-do / Jack and Harry / Pea-fowl as Messenger / The Barking Puppy / The Singing Bird / Two Sisters / Asoonah / The Greedy Child / Alimoty and Aliminty / The Fish Lover / Juggin Straw Blue / The Witch and the Grain of Peas / Bosen Corner / The Three Dogs / Andrew and His Sisters / The Hunter / Man-snake as Bridegroom / The Girls Who Married the Devil / Bull as Bridegroom / The Two Bulls / Ballinder Bull / Bird Arinto / Tiger Softens His Voice / Hidden Names / Anansi and Mr. Able / The King's Three Daughters / The Dumb Child / The Dumb Wife / Leap, Timber, Leap / The Boy Fools Anansi / The Water Crayfish / Ali Baba and Kissem / Bull-of All-the-land / The Boiling Pot / The Twelve One-eyed Men / Bird and Hunter / Jack and the Devil Errant / The Magic Hat and the Staff of Life / Uncle Green and Jack / Big Begum and Little Begum / The Fool and the Wise Brother / The Children and the Witch / The Boy and the Mermaid / Difficult Tasks / The Grateful Beasts / Jack and the Bean-stalk / Jack and the Devil / Jack's Riddle / Jack as Fortune-teller / Robin as Fortune-teller / Jack and the Grateful Dead / The Boy and His Master / The Language of Beasts / The Three Pieces of Advice / Three Brothers and the Life-tree / The Skilful Brothers / The Three Sillies / A Misunderstanding / Big-head, Big-belly, and Little-foot / The Goat in the Lion's Den / The Donkey, the Cat and the Lion's Head / Clever Molly May / Dancing to Anansi's Fiddle / Anansi Claims the Dinner / Anansi Seeks His Fortune / The Pannier-jar / Anansi Kills His Grandmother / White Belly and Anansi / Monkey Hunts Anansi / Anansi and the Pig Coming From Market / The Fifer / In Come Murray / Tacoomah Makes a Dance / Anansi Makes a Dance / Red Yam / Guzzah Man / Fowl and Pretty Poll / The Cumbolo / John-crow and Fowl at Court. / Wooden Ping-ping and Cock. / Animal Talk / The Clock / Two Jugs of Rum / Cutting the Cotton-tree / Walking at Night / The Dray Packed With Sugar / Two Duppies by the Fire / Duppies in a House / A Rolling Calf / Louse and Dog-flea / Ground-lizard and Ground-rat / Puss and Dog / Buying Meat / Monkey and Goat / Anansi and Tiger / Tacoomah and Anansi / The Gourd of Water / The Pan of Water / What Money Can Buy / Jamaican Riddles.

Beckwith collaborated with musicologist Helen Roberts (as she did also for the Jamaica Folklore book), so you will find music for the stories where the storyteller sang a song as part of the story, as here in The Fish Lover:

One of the most valuable things about this book is the Beckwith provides detailed comparative information for the stories helping to make clear connections to stories told by African American storytellers in the United States, and also the original African stories (there are footnotes for the stories too, but make sure to see the comparative commentary in the back of the book). The book was published in 1924, and it reflects all the important bibliography in African and African American folklore up to that point in time.

Beckwith also acknowledges her sources, so you can use the search feature at Internet Archive to look at all the stories reported for a given storyteller, like George Parkes for example:

Beckwith's book was one of the most valuable sources for the book of Anansi Tiny Tales that I published back in 2020. You can find that book at the Internet Archive also, with an free audiobook and other formats available too. There are 200 Anansi stories in there, each just 100 words long.

So, there is plenty of Anansi for you to read and enjoy now, and I'll be back tomorrow with even more Anansi!

Jamaica Anansi Stories

by Martha Beckwith

Tiny Tales of Anansi

by Laura Gibbs

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Jamaica Folklore

After writing about Anand Prahlad's African-American Proverbs in Context last week, I promised more proverbs, and here they are: "Jamaican Proverbs," which is a publication included in the book Jamaica Folklore by Martha Beckwith. 

There are four separate studies, all previously published, that have been combined and republished in this big (almost 400 pages) collection: Folk Games of Jamaica, Christmas Mummings in Jamaica, Jamaica Proverbs, and Notes on Jamaican Ethnobotany. 

The Proverbs begin on p. 185, and there are 972 proverbs here, plus an index, running to 137 pages. The proverbs are organized alphabetically (sometimes with multiple versions), and each one is accompanied by a rendering in standard English along with the originals in Jamaican English. As you can see, some of the proverbs are associated with folktales, and when that's the case, as with the Anansi proverb here, Beckwith also supplies the story:

Beckwith opens the book with praise of the African proverb tradition, arguing that the widespread use of proverbs in Jamaican is part of the island's African cultural legacy. Beckwith's main informants were 22 women students at a teachers college in 1919 who grew up in different locations around the island. She also collected sayings from other sources and used existing collections of Jamaican proverbs which are detailed in the introduction. The proverbs are a blend of African and British traditions; the "Dog say" or "Hog say" tradition of opening a proverb with "[animal] says" is one distinctively African tradition that is found here.

As someone who is fascinated by proverbs, this is the section of Beckwith's book that is of most interest to me, but you might find materials of interest in the rest of the book too. Beckwith worked with Helen Roberts, a musicologist who was her regular collaborator, so you will find musical materials here, as in the folk games section. Here's a game called Hardy Hardy:

Martha Beckwith, an American folklorist, is best known for her massive collection of Anansi stories, so I'll come back with that tomorrow. Meanwhile, hundreds of Jamaican proverbs await you, and more Jamaican folklore too.

Jamaica Folklore

by Martha Beckwith