Africa at the Internet Archive: The Long Grass Whispers

Yesterday I featured Geraldine Elliot's Where the Leopard Passes, and today I want to feature another one of her books which you can find at Internet Archive: The Long Grass Whispers.

You can see yesterday's post for more information about Geraldine Elliot and the Ngoni people of Malawi from whom she heard these stories. The illustrations again are by Sheila Hawkins; here you can see the tortoise and the hyena:

One story from this book, "The Swallow and the Mole," is anthologized in this nice collection: A Storyteller's Choice: A Selection of Stories With Notes on How to Tell Them by Eileen Colwell, also just a click away at the Archive:

Even better: another story from this book, "The Monkey and the Hyena," appears in this anthology which contains a dozen stories from Africa! Here's that book at the Internet Archive: A Knock at the Door, edited by George Shannon:

Often these types of anthologies include just one or two African folktales, but this book includes a nice range of African stories; here's the table of contents (click on the image for a larger view).

Finally, another one of Elliot's stories forms the basis for this children's book: The Honey Hunters illustrated by Francesca Martin.

This is a story about the honey-guide bird, who is a popular figure in African folklore. You can see here where the bird has led the boy and the animals to the bees' honey:

I've got two more books by Elliot in my own personal library (The Singing Chameleon and The Hunter's Cave), so that means I'm checking for it periodically at the Internet Archive too, and if/when it shows up, you know I'll write a blog post about it. Meanwhile, these two other books by Elliot are ready and waiting for you at the Archive, just a click away, along with these other lovely books:

The Long Grass Whispers

by Geraldine Elliot

A Storyteller's Choice: A Selection of Stories

With Notes on How to Tell Them

by Eileen Colwell

A Knock at the Door

by George Shannon

The Honey Hunters

by Francesca Martin.

Africa at the Internet Archive: Where the Leopard Passes

I want to start Week 30 with a post about Geraldine Elliot; I periodically update my listing of African folktale books available at Internet Archive, and I was excited to see that one of her books has been added since my last update: Where the Leopard Passes: A Book of African Folk Tales, which is a collection of Ngoni stories.

You can find out more about the Ngoni people at Wikipedia; traditionally they lived in southern Africa, but during the wars associated with the rise of the Zulu nation during the early 19th century, the Ngoni people migrated north, and Geraldine Elliot heard these stories in Malawi, which has a large Ngoni population now.

The illustrations for the book are by Sheila Hawkins:

One of the stories from this book, "Tortoise Triumphant," was anthologized in a lovely collection, also at Internet Archive: The Kingfisher Treasury of Stories From Around the World edited by Linda Jennings:

The illustrations in the anthology version are by Victor Ambrus; Elliot's story is a version of the classic tug-of-war tale, and here's his depiction of Hippo, whom Tortoise is going to trick into tugging against Elephant:

There are also several stories from the book anthologized in this collection of African folktales: African Folktales and Activities by Louise Orlando.

This fun book from Scholastic, meant for grades K-3, has lots of supplementary materials for teachers to use: facts in context, proverbs, learning activities, etc. The illustrations are by Michelle Hull:

There's also a story from Elliot's book, "The Tortoise and the Osprey," in this anthology: World Folktales, edited by Atelia Clarkson and Gilbert Cross:

The authors of that book have disparaging things to say about Elliot as a children's author as opposed to being an academic folklorist, and it's true: children's books do not follow the practices of academic folktale collection. At the same time, I would argue that a far bigger problem is the Eurocentric bias of the academic world itself, as reflected in the contents of this book where European stories outnumber African stories ten to one. There are just 3 other African stories in the book, out of a total 66, well over half of which are European, despite the book's claim to represent the "world" of storytelling. It is that lack of awareness of African folktale traditions that makes the children's books all the more valuable, in my opinion, because those books create important opportunities for children to learn about African folklore. Don't get me wrong; I'm a fan of Clarkson and Cross's book (I have a copy of it on my shelf), but I wish that, instead of criticizing Elliot for writing children's books, they had instead turned that critical gaze on their own practice and been prompted to include more African folktales from African authors in this book.

More about Geraldine Elliot: she was born in India and grew up in England. She was "Aunt Geraldine" for a BBC children's radio program in the early 1920s. She first went to Africa when her husband, who was in the British Colonial Service, was posted to Malawi in 1928. She wrote and published a series of folktale books during her three decades in Africa (first in Malawi, later in Zimbabwe); they returned to England in 1955, and she died in 2003. (I found the biographical information here.)

So, Elliot's book, plus the other books that anthologize her stories from that book, are just a click away for you at the Internet Archive, and I'll be back tomorrow with some more stories from Geraldine Elliot. :-)

Where the Leopard Passes:

A Book of African Folk Tales

by Geraldine Elliot

African Folktales and Activities

by Louise Orlando

The Kingfisher Treasury of Stories

From Around the World

by Linda Jennings:

World Folktales

by Atelia Clarkson and Gilbert Cross