Diaspora Folktales at Internet Archive: Week 27

Welcome to the first September round-up! Because I'll be traveling this month, I'm probably not going to be posting much over the next couple of weeks, but I'll be back towards the end of the month with more books and more posts.

Meanwhile, you can visit all the weekly roundups since the beginning last year when this African/Diaspora project began: [Africa] May 2021 - June - July - August - September - October - November - December - January 2022 - [Diaspora] February 2022 - March - April - May - June - July - August.

And here are this week's books, all of them public domain folktale collections:

At the Big House where Aunt Nancy and Aunt 'Phrony

Held Forth on the Animal Folks

by Anne Virginia Culbertson

Stories For Children

by Mrs. M.R. Allen

Plantation Stories of Old Louisiana

by Andrews Wilkinson

How and Why Stories

by John C. Branner

 Fairy Tales from Brazil:

How and Why Tales from Brazilian Folklore

by Elsie Spicer Eells

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: How and Why Tales from Brazilian Folklore

For today's public domain book, it's Fairy Tales from Brazil: How and Why Tales from Brazilian Folklore by Elsie Spicer Eells, published in 1917.

Elsie Spicer Eells lived in Brazil for several years where her husband was a missionary, and that is when she began collecting this stories; you can find out more at Wikipedia. 

There are not many sources for Brazilian stories in English, which makes this book by Eells especially useful, and I've picked out several stories that are good candidates for the public domain anthology to go with the Reader's Guide to African Diaspora Folktales at the Internet Archive. You can read them here: How the Rabbit Lost His Tail, How the Toad Got His Bruises, How the Monkey Got Food When He Was Hungry, Why the Bananas Belong to the Monkey and Why the Monkey Still Has a Tail. As you can see from the titles, the monkey has taken on an important role as a trickster in the Brazilian stories.

There's also a LibriVox audio version of this book at the Archive.

So, if you are curious to read some folktales from Brazil, this book is a place to start!

 Fairy Tales from Brazil:

How and Why Tales from Brazilian Folklore

by Elsie Spicer Eells

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: How and Why Stories

Carrying on with the public domain books this week, here is an unusual little book of a stories, remembered from childhood, by John C. Branner: How and Why Stories.

John C. Branner was an important geologist, and you can read more about his career at Wikipedia. This book is his only foray into this type of storytelling, and the preliminary materials are extremely revealing. Branner was born in 1850, and as the introduction makes clear, he saw slavery as a completely benevolent institution about which he felt nothing but sentimental affection... until a freed slave managed to make at least a small breakthrough in his thinking so that he realized, even if dimly, that, uh, slavery was a bad thing. Anyway, the prefactory materials are very much worth reading; I would suspect that this endorsement of slavery as a benevolent institution is behind the thinking of many of the white authors who published books of stories they remembered from childhood. The difference is just that Branner has shared his thoughts here out loud.

I'll admit that it makes for some pretty repugnant reading, though, so if you just want to skip to the stories, skip to the stories... and there are some really great ones in here! The storytellers that Branner was in contact with as a child told highly Christianized versions of the stories in which God, the Devil, Noah, etc. play prominent roles. One of my favorite stories in here is about why the cat has nine lives, and you can read a version with the eye-dialect removed here: Why the Cat Has Nine Lives.

I'm guessing it didn't even cross Branner's mind, who puts a positive spin on the story, but it's clearly a story born from the enormous pain of enslaved women separated from their children, with Noah as a heartless overseer or master. Heavy stuff, and heart-rending, even if Branner doesn't exactly get it.

The illustrations of the animals are by W. S. Atkinson, so here is his illustration for the story of the cat's nine lives:

Plus there are actual story illustrations by R. K. Culver, as here where Noah is pulling the cat up into the ark:

You'll find 21 stories here, and if you can managed to tolerate the eye-dialect, you can use this book to hear, albeit remotely and indirectly, the voices of African American storytellers circa 1860, when John Branner was growing up in a household that owned people as slaves.

How and Why Stories

by John C. Branner

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Plantation Stories of Old Louisiana

The theme for this week is public domain books, and today's book follows Joel Chandler Harris's formula for the Uncle Remus books, but this time the storyteller is a former slave named "Jason," and the stories are set in Louisiana: Plantation Stories of Old Louisiana by Andrews Wilkinson.

The illustrations are by Charles Bull, a well -known wildlife illustrator of the time (more at Wikipedia; you can see his illustrated Aesop's fables here). This is Bull's illustration for the story of Mink and Wildcat going fishing:

Wilkinson is also the author of another book of Louisiana stories which is a mix of folktales and anecdotes: Boy Holidays in the Louisiana Wilds, published in 1917.

The illustrations for this book are by Harold James Cue. Here's his illustration for the story of Fox and Owl.

This use of eye-dialect and the racist plantation sentimentalism of the frametale makes these stories pretty repugnant to read, but the stories are a better read I think with the eye-dialect and the frame removed; here's one of the stories from Plantation Stories edited in that way, a classic trickster tale of food frustrations: Mr. Fox and Mrs. Possum Dine Together. That will be a good story to include in the public domain anthology for the Reader's Guide I'm working on now, which is why I'm focusing on the public domain books this week. These published stories are indirect evidence for African American storytelling traditions, although it takes some work to try to disentangle them, at least partly, from the racist context that made their publication possible. So, read the books with that spirit in mind, looking for traces that the true stories have left behind:

Plantation Stories of Old Louisiana

by Andrews Wilkinson

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Stories For Children

Carrying on with the public domain books for this week, here is another children's book, this one published in 1912: Stories For Children by Mrs. M.R. Allen (I have not been able to find out anything more about this author, not even her own name!).

This is another book written with of bit of faux-African-American dialect, but it is less offensive than other books in this genre, and thankfully it doesn't feature the "happy days on the plantation" type of framing that makes the books by Joel Chandler Harris and others so unreadable. In the introduction, the author claims that she collected the stories from African American storytellers, and I am inclined to believe her. The variety of the stories in this book does a good job of representing a range of African American folktale types, and the quirks in the stories seem indicative of the quirks of individual storytellers. How much better it would have been if the author had told us more about the storytellers, and credited them here in the book itself!

I was excited to find one of my favorite African American folktales here about violating the no-fishing-on-Sunday prohibition, where the protagonist is often named Simon. Here is Mrs. Allen's version: Simon the Fisher. (You can click on the image for a larger view.)

For comparison, here is a version recorded by Thomas Talley in Negro Folk Rhymes: Fishing Simon.

This is an African folktale, although the "Sunday" prohibition comes with the Christian context. Here's one African folktale for comparison: "Fishing Where the Water People Live" in Bundy's Folktales from Liberia published in the Journal of American Folklore, 1919.

I picked out several stories from Allen's book to include in the Anthology for the Reader's Guide that I'm working on now; here are some of them: trickster stories from Allen's book. 

Stories For Children

by Mrs. M.R. Allen

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: At the Big House

I've started assembling public domain stories to go into the anthology part of the Reader's Guide to African Diaspora Folktales at the Internet Archive (the anthology was one of my favorite things about work on the African folktale guide), and this week I want to catch up on some of the public domain books that will be doing into the Guide. These are older books, and their use of dialect, especially eye-dialect, is undesirable in the extreme, but in preparing the stories for the anthology, I can try to minimize the eye-dialect so that the language can be better appreciated for its own sake.

So, the book I want to share today is At the Big House: Where Aunt Nancy and Aunt 'Phrony Held Forth on the Animal Folks by Anne Virginia Culbertson, published in 1904. 

You can read more about Culberton's life and career as a writer at Wikipedia. You will find 50 stories here, featuring animal characters, especially the trickster rabbit, Mr. Hare. One of the most fascinating aspects of the book is that it reflects the confluence of African American and Cherokee storytelling in eastern North Carolina at the time; among the Cherokee, Rabbit was an important trickster character.

The illustrations are by E. Warde Blaisdell, who did illustrations for other animal books like The Animals at the Fair and Beastly Rhymes. Here's his illustration for a funny story about Hare and Bear which I might include in the anthology; you can see how I have transcribed it, with the eye-dialect mostly removed, here: Mister Hare Dines with Mister Bear.

A book like this is probably not the kind of thing anybody is going to want to read from cover to cover, and the framing of the stories is pretty repugnant, much like the Uncle Remus framing in Joel Chandler Harris's books, but this is still a source we can use for stories and to get at a least a sense, however indirect, of the oral arts of African American storytellers in the late 19th century, as reflected in their literary exploitation by white writers like Culbertson.

At the Big House where Aunt Nancy and Aunt 'Phrony
Held Forth on the Animal Folks
by Anne Virginia Culbertson

Diaspora Folktales at Internet Archive: Week 26

Welcome to the final August round-up! Plus, you can visit all the weekly roundups since the beginning last year when this African/Diaspora project began:

Africa: May 2021 - June - July - August - September - October - November - December - January 2022 
Diaspora: February 2022 - March - April - May - June - July - August.

And don't forget about the Anansi Book Club! The anthology this week is full of wonderful stories from southern Africa: The Stolen Water and Other Stories: Traditional Tales from Namibia by Jennifer Davis.

Now here are all of this week's books, which feature Caribbean stories and storytellers:

Jamaican Song and Story:

Annancy Stories, Digging Sings,

Ring Tunes, and Dancing Tunes

by Walter Jekyll

 Classic Caribbean Stories

retold by Al Campbell

Under the Storyteller's Spell:

Folktales from the Caribbean

by Faustin Charles

Haitian Creole

by Robert A. Hall, Jr.

Tales of the Caribbean:

The Beginning of Things

by Evan Jones

Tales of the Caribbean:

Witches and Duppies

by Evan Jones

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Tales of the Caribbean

And for today's Caribbean stories, I have two books from the "Tales of the Caribbean" series by Evan Jones that you can find at Internet Archive!

The first is a book of creation stories: The Beginning of Things.

You will find 6 stories here, along with a chant and a poem (by James Berry!), plus a glossary in the back: Yellow Snake ~ Why God Went Away ~ Old Nelson Godon ~ Hurucan and Gucumatz ~ The Hundred Slaves ~ The Hole in the Clouds. Some of the stories are from the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean; others are stories from Africa.

The illustrations are by various artists as credited in the front of the book. Here is Clyde Pearson's illustration for "The Hundred Slaves," which is an Anansi story:

The other book is Witches and Duppies (for the African origins of the word duppy, see Wikipedia):

You will find 5 stories, plus a poem and also a glossary in the back: The Children of the Forest ~ The Old Higue ~ Kobi and Mr Brown ~ The Fairmaid of Karika ~ The Lagahoo.

This book also has illustrations by various artists with credits in the front of the book. This one is by Martin White: an obeah woman grinding a lizard into a charm.

There is also an Anansi book in this same series, and maybe it will eventually show up at the Archive too. Meanwhile, enjoy the stories that are here!

Tales of the Caribbean:
The Beginning of Things

by Evan Jones

Tales of the Caribbean:
Witches and Duppies

by Evan Jones

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Haitian Creole

For today's Caribbean resource, it's all about Haitian Creole, with a book that includes a description of Haitian Creole plus a grammar, vocabulary, and abundant texts, including 25 folktales, plus proverbs and riddles and other material: Haitian Creole by Robert A. Hall, Jr.

The texts are presented with the Creole and English side by side, as you can see in this screenshot (click on the image for a larger view):

Here is a list of the folktale titles: Bouqui, Zombie and Bouquinette ~ Bouqui as Saddle-Horse ~ Malice Rides Bouqui ~ Bouqui in Love with the King's Child ~ Bouqui, Malice and Monkey ~ Bouqui Eats Own Mother ~ Bouqui and Malice Get Bird's Eggs ~ Big Klaus and Little Klaus ~ Bouqui at the Tailor's ~ Bouqui's Goat ~ Malice and Monkey's Tongue ~ King of Devils and Children ~ Bluebeard: Magical Escape ~ Why Dog Hates Cat ~ The Country Without Women ~ Ambition Kills the Rat ~ The King's Daughter's Ring ~ Wadile: Money-Giving Lizard ~ Sister and Brother: Clean and Dirty Water ~ Cat, Goat, and Dog ~ The Lion and the Donkey ~ The Thief and the Lord ~ Boy and Syrup-Vendor ~ Cherubin and Captain's Daughter ~ Laline ~ Brother Crab-Fisher and Brother Parrot ~ Man Bewitches Girl ~ Beautiful Son ~ The Tortoise and the Birds ~ The Misfortune They Cast on the Man who Killed a Snake ~ Tasting Rice ~ Jeanty-Henri: Cochon-Gras ~ Poor Boy who Married the King's Daughter ~ Man Eats Bird ~ Bull and Calf: Father vs Son ~ How Hawk Came to Eat Chicken.

One of Hall's collaborators on this project was Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain, the author of Creole Tales from Haiti which I wrote about earlier at this blog.

So, if you are curious about Bouqui and Malice and/or if you are curious about Haitian Creole, this is the book for you, and it's just a click away at the Internet Archive:

Haitian Creole

by Robert A. Hall, Jr.

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Under the Storyteller's Spell

I'm really excited about today's Caribbean book because it was one that has been added to the Internet Archive recently, back in March of this year. When I first started this Diaspora project back in February, I looked and looked, hoping to find this book edited by Faustin Charles at the Archive... but it was not there. When I just did an update to my inventory recently, I discovered that it is now available! Yay! Here is the book: Under the Storyteller's Spell: Folktales from the Caribbean.

In addition to editing the book, Charles contributed two of the stories: Anancy and Monkey Business, and Pierra and the La Diablesse. You will also find stories by James Berry, Grace Nichols and Petronella Breinburg here (who have been featured in earlier blog posts), along with folktales retold by 10 more Caribbean authors.

The beautiful illustrations are by Rossetta Woolf. Here is her illustration for Charles's Anancy story:

Faustin Charles, born in 1944, is a poet and novelist from Trinidad now based in London. He is best known for his children's "animal" books, which you can also find at the Archive: books by Faustin Charles. The most famous is The Selfish Crocodile. (As you can guess, the crocodile finally learns not to be selfish, and he shares the river with all the other animals.) 

So, thanks to the ongoing digitization of books at the Internet Archive, this wonderful collection of Caribbean folktales is now just a click away with Controlled Digital Lending!

Under the Storyteller's Spell:
Folktales from the Caribbean

by Faustin Charles

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Classic Caribbean Stories

So, after yesterday's exciting announcement (Reader's Guide to African Diaspora Folktales at the Internet Archive!), we're back to our regularly scheduled programming here, with books from the Caribbean being the focus this week. Today I want to feature an item from the "SunZone Heritage Series" published in Jamaica: Classic Caribbean Stories retold by Al Campbell.

These 16 stories doing a great job of conveying the wealth of storytelling traditions in the Caribbean, including important African stories that have taken on new forms in these different Caribbean communities: The Sun and the Moon (Cuba) ~ Juan Bobo Goes to Market (Puerto Rico) ~ Getting Common Sense (Jamaica) ~ The Bat (Taino) ~ Fruit Trees (Carib) ~ Eshu's Hat (Cuba) ~ Bouki Rents a Horse (Haiti) ~ Mancrow (Jamaica) ~ Olofi Splits the Difference (Cuba) ~ Timbo Limbo (Jamaica) ~ Tio Conejo wants to be BIG (Cuba) ~ The Lucky Pot (Guyana) ~ Touloulou Takes a Ride (Haiti) ~ Oshún Lures Ogún from the Forest (Cuba) ~ The Magic Orange Tree (Haiti) ~ How El Bizarrón Fooled the Devil (Cuba).

There are illustrations too, and I think they are by Shyam Sunder (who is credit with the book's cover design). Here is the illustration for the Tio Conejo story from Cuba, which is the classic African tale of "Trickster Seeks Endowments," told here about the trickster rabbit:

The back of the book lists the rest of the Heritage Series from SunZone publishers, and I will be keeping an eye out to see if any of these do make their way to the Internet Archive; it would be great to see any/all of them here!

Meanwhile, these classic Caribbean stories await you, just a click away at the Internet Archive, thanks to Controlled Digital Lending:

 Classic Caribbean Stories

retold by Al Campbell

Reader's Guide to African Diaspora Folktales

I have an exciting announcement today: it's the (very preliminary) table of contents for my next book: A Reader's Guide to African Diaspora Folktales at the Internet Archive... along with folk songs and other folklore resources too! 

As in the previous book (free #OER!), A Reader's Guide to African Folktales at the Internet Archive, there will be 200 books with brief bibliography for each one, plus an anthology of 50 public domain stories. I'm excited to get to work on actually putting the book together now that I have a tentative list of books (plus a few substantial articles) to include! Here they are:

1. Abrahams, Roger and John Szwed. After Africa: British West Indies
2. Abrahams, Roger. African American Folktales
3. Adams, Edward Clarkson Leverett. Tales of the Congaree
4. Adeney, Anne. Anansi the Banana Thief
5. Agard, John. Say It Again, Granny!
6. Agard, John. Brer Rabbit: The Great Tug-of-War
7. Allen, Mrs. M. R.. Stories for Children
8. Ancelet, Barry Jean. Cajun and Creole Folktales
9. Anderson, Izett and Frank Cundall. Jamaica Negro Proverbs and Sayings
10. Backus, Emma M.. Folk Tales from Georgia
11. Bagley, Julian. Candle-Lighting Time in Bodidalee
12. Bascom, William. African Folktales in the New World
13. Beckwith, Martha. Jamaica Anansi Stories
14. Beckwith, Martha. Jamaica Folklore
15. Belpré, Pura. Dance of the Animals
16. Belpré, Pura.The Tiger and the Rabbit
17. Bender, Robert. Old Mister Rabbit
18. Bennett, Edna. More Jamaica Old-Time Sayings
19. Berry, James. First Palm Trees
20. Berry, James. Spiderman Anancy
21. Blyton, Enid. The Brer Rabbit Book
22. Borgenicht, David. Brer Rabbit
23. Botkin, Benjamin. Lay My Burden Down a Folk History of Slavery
24. Branner, John C.. How and Why Stories
25. Breinburg, Petronella. Stories from the Caribbean
26. Brennan, Jonathan. When Brer Rabbit Meets Coyote
27. Brewer, John Mason. American Negro Folklore
28. Brewer, John Mason. Dog Ghosts and Word on the Brazos
29. Broussard, James. Louisiana Creole Dialect
30. Bryan, Ashley. All Night, All Day
31. Bryan, Ashley. Climbing Jacob's Ladder
32. Bryan, Ashley. Dancing Granny
33. Bryan, Ashley. Turtle Knows Your Name
34. Burlin, Natalie. Negro Folksongs
35. Campbell, Al. Classic Caribbean Tales
36. Capshaw, Katherine. Children's Literature of the Harlem Renaissance
37. Carter, Dorothy. Greedy Mariani
38. Cassidy, Frederic. Dictionary of Jamaican English
39. Charles, Faustin. Under the Storyteller's Spell
40. Christensen, Abigail. Afro-American Folk Lore
41. Comhaire-Sylvain, Suzanne. Creole Tales from Haiti
42. Comissiong, Lynette. Mind me good now
43. Coughlan, Margaret. Folklore From Africa to the United States
44. Courlander, Harold. A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore
45. Courlander, Harold. Negro Folk Music USA
46. Courlander, Harold. Terrapin's Pot of Sense
47. Courlander, Harold. The Drum and the Hoe
48. Courlander, Harold. The Piece of Fire, and Other Haitian Tales
49. Crowley, Daniel. African Folklore in the New World
50. Culbertson, Anne. At the Big House
51. Dance, Daryl Cumber. Folklore from Contemporary Jamaicans
52. Dance, Daryl Cumber. From My People: African American Folklore
53. Dance, Daryl Cumber. Honey, Hush! African American Women's Humor
54. Dance, Daryl Cumber. Shuckin' and Jivin'
55. De Sauza, James. Brother Anansi and the Cattle Ranch
56. Dorson, Richard. American Negro Folktales
57. Dorson, Richard. Negro Tales from Arkansas and Michigan
58. Doucet, Sharon. Lapin Plays Possum: Trickster Tales
59. Doucet, Sharon. Why Lapin's Ears Are Long and Other Tales
60. Dresser, Cynthia. The Rainmaker's Dog
61. Dundes, Alan. Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel
62. Edwards, Charles. Bahama Songs and Stories
63. Eells, Elsie. Fairy Tales from Brazil
64. Faulkner, William J.. The Days When Animals Talked
65. Fauset, Arthur. Negro Folk Tales from the South
66. Finnen, Wanda. Talking Drums
67. Fleming, Elizabeth. Brer Rabbit Plays
68. Ford, Lynette. Affrilachian Tales
69. Ford, Lynette. Beyond the Briar Patch
70. Fortier, Alcee. Louisiana Folktales
71. Foss, Flora. The Caribbean
72. Gates, Henry Louis. The Signifying Monkey
73. Georgia Writer's Project. Drums and Shadows
74. Gershator, Phillis. Tukama Tootles the Flute
75. Gibbs, Laura. Tiny Tales of Anansi
76. Gleeson, Brian. Anansi
77. Goss, Linda. Jump Up and Say: Black Storytelling
78. Goss, Linda. Talk That Talk: African-American Storytelling
79. Green, Thomas. African American Folktales
80. Green, Thomas. Greenwood Library of American Folktales
81. Hall, Robert. Haitian Creole
82. Hallworth, Grace. Cric Crac: West Indian Stories
83. Hallworth, Grace. Down by the River
84. Hallworth, Grace. Listen to This Story: Tales from the West Indies
85. Hallworth, Grace. Sing Me a Story!
86. Hamilton, Virginia. Her Stories: African American Tales
87. Hamilton, Virginia. Ring of Tricksters
88. Hamilton, Virginia. The People Could Fly
89. Hamilton, Virginia. When Birds Could Talk and Bats Could Sing
90. Hansen, Terrence. Types of the Folktale
91. Harris, Joel Chandler. Nights With Uncle Remus
92. Harris, Joel Chandler. The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus
93. Harris, Joel Chandler. Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings
94. Haskins, James. Headless Haunt
95. Haskins, James. Moaning Bones
96. Hausman, Gerald. Duppy Talk
97. Hayes, Joe. Dance, Nana, Dance: Cuban Folktales
98. Herskovits, Melville and Frances Herskovits. Suriname Folklore
99. Hughes, Langston and Arna Bontemps. Book of Negro Folklore
100. Hull, Robert. Caribbean Stories
101. Hurston, Zora Neale. Every Tongue Got to Confess
102. Hurston, Zora Neale. Go, Gator, and Muddy the Water
103. Hurston, Zora Neale. Of Mules and Men
104. Ibekwe, Patrick. Wit and Wisdom of Africa
105. Jackson, Bruce. Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me
106. Jackson, Bruce. The Negro and His Folklore
107. Jaquith, Priscilla. Bo Rabbit Smart For True
108. Jekyll, Walter. Jamaican Song and Story
109. Johnson, James Weldon. American Negro Spirituals
110. Johnson, Janet. How Mr. Dog Got Tame
111. Johnson, Janet. Lucky Jack and the Giant
112. Johnson, John. Folklore From Antigua
113. Jones, Bessie. Step It Down: Games, Plays, Songs & Stories
114. Jones, Charles C.. Negro Myths From the Georgia Coast
115. Jones, Evan. The Beginning of Things
116. Joseph, Lynn. The Mermaid's Twin Sister: Stories from Trinidad
117. Kantor, Susan. 101 African-American Read-Aloud Stories
118. Keens-Douglas, Richardo. Anancy and the Haunted House
119. Keens-Douglas, Richardo. La Diablesse and the Baby
120. Keens-Douglas, Richardo. Mama God, Papa God
121. Lester, Julius. Black Folktales
122. Lester, Julius. John Henry
123. Lester, Julius. The Knee-High Man and Other Tales
124. Lester, Julius. Uncle Remus: The Complete Tales
125. Levine, Lawrence. Black Culture and Black Consciousness
126. Lindahl, Carl. Swapping Stories: Folktales from Louisiana
127. Lomax, Alan, J. D. Elder and Bess Lomax. Brown Girl in the Ring
128. Lomax, John and Alan Lomax. American Ballads and Folk Songs
129. Loya, Olga. The Wax Man
130. Makhanlall, David. The Further Adventures of Brer Anansi
131. Makhanlall, David. The Invincible Brer Anansi
132. Marsh, Vivian. Negro Folklore in America
133. McCartney, Norma. Tales of the Immortelles
134. McCulloch, Derek. Stagger Lee
135. McKissack, Pat. The Dark-Thirty
136. Medearis, Angela. Tailypo
137. Medearis, Angela. The Freedom Riddle
138. Medearis, Angela. The Ghost of Sifty-Sifty Sam
139. Metaxas, Eric. Brer Rabbit and the Wonderful Tarbaby
140. Milne-Home, Mary. Mamma's Black Nurse Stories
141. National Association of Black Storytellers. Sayin' Somethin'
142. Nichols, Grace and John Agard. Under the Moon and Over the Sea
143. Norfolk, Bobby and Sherry Norfolk. Anansi and the Tug of War
144. Norfolk, Bobby and Sherry Norfolk. The Moral of the Story
145. Odum, Howard. Negro Workaday Songs
146. Odum, Howard. The Negro and His Songs
147. Owen, Mary. Old Rabbit, the Voodoo, and Other Sorcerers
148. Parker, Victoria. Traditional Tales from the Caribbean
149. Parks, Van Dyke. Jump!
150. Parsons, Elsie Clews. Folklore From Elizabeth City, Virginia
151. Parsons, Elsie Clews. Folklore from Guilford County
152. Parsons, Elsie Clews. Folklore from the Cape Verde Islands
153. Parsons, Elsie Clews. Folklore of the Antilles
154. Parsons, Elsie Clews. Folklore of the Sea Islands, South Carolina
155. Parsons, Elsie Clews. Folktales of Andros Island, Bahamas
156. Prahlad, Anand. African American Folklore
157. Prahlad, Anand. African-American Proverbs in Context
158. Price, Richard and Sally Price. Two Evenings in Saramaka
159. Puckett, Newbell. Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro
160. Rees, Ennis. Brer Rabbit and His Tricks
161. Reneaux, J. J.. How Animals Saved the People
162. Roberts, John W.. From Trickster to Badman
163. Sale, John B.. The Tree Named John
164. San Souci, Robert. Callie Ann and Mistah Bear
165. San Souci, Robert. Hired Hand
166. San Souci, Robert. The Twins and the Bird of Darkness
167. Sanfield, Steve. A Natural Man: The True Story of John Henry
168. Sanfield, Steve. The Adventures of High John the Conqueror
169. Schomp, Virginia. Brer Rabbit and the Goober Patch
170. Sherlock, Philip. Anansi the Spider Man
171. Sherlock, Philip. Tales from the West Indies
172. Siegelson, Kim. In the Time of the Drums
173. Smiley, Portia. Folklore from the Southern United States
174. Smith, Pamela Colman. Annancy Stories
175. Spalding, Henry. Encyclopedia of Black Folklore and Humor
176. Stafford, Alphonso. Animal Fables From the Dark Continent
177. Stevens, Janet. Tops and Bottoms
178. Stoddard, Albert. Animal Tales Told In The Gullah Dialect
179. Stuckey, Sterling. Going Through the Storm
180. Talley, Thomas. Negro Folk Rhymes
181. Talley, Thomas. The Negro Traditions
182. Temple, Frances. Tiger Soup
183. Thompson, Rose. Hush Child, Can't You Hear the Music?
184. Torrence, Jackie. Importance of Pot Liquor
185. Veerhoeve, Jan and Ursy Lichtveld. Creole Drum
186. Wahl, Jan. Little Eight John
187. Waters, Donald. Strange Ways and Sweet Dreams
188. Watkins, Mel. African American humor
189. Watson, G. Llewellyn. Jamaican Sayings
190. Whiting, Helen. Negro Folk Tales
191. Wilkinson, Andrews. Plantation Stories of Old Louisiana
192. Wolkstein, Diane. Bouki Dances the Kokioko
193. Wolkstein, Diane. The Banza: A Haitian Story
194. Wolkstein, Diane. The Magic Orange Tree: Haitian Folktales
195. Work II, John Wesley. Folk Songs of the American Negro
196. Work III, John Wesley. American Negro Songs
197. Works Project Administration. South Carolina Folk Tales
198. Young, Martha. Behind the Dark Pines
199. Young, Martha. Plantation Bird Legends
200. Young, Richard and Judy Young. African-American Folktales

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Jamaican Song and Story

It's Caribbean stories this week, going back now to a classic of Jamaican folklore: Jamaican Song and Story: Annancy Stories, Digging Sings, Ring Tunes, and Dancing Tunes by Walter Jekyll, published in 1907.

There are 51 stories in the book, plus songs... and some of the stories also contains songs, as you can see in this Anansi story:

Here is a list of the titles of the stories: Annancy and Brother Tiger ~ Yung-Kyum-Pyung ~ King Daniel ~ Tomby ~ How Monkey manage Annancy ~ Blackbird and Woss-woss ~ The Three Sisters ~ William Tell ~ Brother Annancy and Brother Death ~ MrBluebeard ~ Annancy, Puss and Ratta ~ Toad and Donkey ~ Snake the Postman ~ Doba ~ Dry-Bone ~ Annancy and the Old Lady's Field ~ Man-Crow ~ Saylan ~ Annancy and Screech-Owl ~ Annancy and Cow ~ Tacoma and the Old-Witch Girl ~ Devil's Honey-Dram ~ Annancy in Crab Country ~ Gaulin ~ Annancy, Monkey and Tiger ~ The Three Pigs ~ Dummy ~ Annancy and Candlefly ~ Parson Puss and Parson Dog ~ Chicken-Hawk ~ Pretty Poll ~ Annancy and Hog ~ Dry-River ~ Yellow Snake ~ Cow and Annancy ~ Leah and Tiger ~ Timmolimmo ~ Calcutta Monkey and Annancy ~ Open Sesame ~ Sea-Mahmy ~ Crab and his Corn-piece ~ Dry-Grass and Fire ~ John Crow ~ Tiger's Death ~ The Old Lady and the Jar ~ John Crow and Fowl-Hawk ~ Finger Quashy ~ Annancy and his Fish-Pot ~ Hog and Dog ~ Devil and the Princess ~ Wheeler.

Walter Jekyll was a former clergyman who moved to Jamaican in 1894 and began farming there; he collected the stories and songs in this book from the men who worked for him. He died in Jamaica in 1929. You can read more about his life and career at Wikipedia.

Jekyll also encouraged the young Claude McKay to write his poems, Songs of Jamaica, in patois, and he supplied the preface to the book. Jekyll may also have written the notes to the poems; for more about that, see the Digital Edition of Songs of Jamaica. Claude McKay went on to become a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance; you can find out more at Wikipedia.

There's also an introduction from Alice Werner, a scholar of African languages and cultures, who puts a special emphasis on the African heritage in Jamaican storytelling traditions. (More about Alice Werner.)

So, if you want to find out about African Anansi in Jamaica, this book is a great resource, just a click away at the Internet Archive. I'll be back with more Caribbean stories tomorrow!

Jamaican Song and Story:

Annancy Stories, Digging Sings,

Ring Tunes, and Dancing Tunes

by Walter Jekyll