African Folktales at Internet Archive: Fourteen Hundred Cowries

I'll finish up this week of story collections from Nigeria with another beautiful collection of Yoruba folktales: Fourteen Hundred Cowries and Other African Tales by Abayomi Fuja, just a click away at Internet Archive.

Abayomi Fuja originally collected these stories in Nigeria in the late 1930s and early 1940s and published the texts in 1962 under the title: Fourteen Hundred Cowries: Traditional Stories of the Yoruba; the book contains 31 stories. 

Then, a new edition appeared in 1971 with illustrations by Ademola Olugebefola, one of the leading figures of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s. Olugebefola was born in 1941 in U.S. Virgin Islands and migrated to New York City as a small child. As both an artist and businessman he was deeply involved in the Black Arts movement of the 1960s; find out more at the NYPL Archive: Ademola Olugebefola.

Olugebefola's illustrations really are remarkable; there are half-page illustrations like these for example:

And also full-page illustrations like these:

So, if you happen to own an old copy of the book without the illustrations, make sure to hop on over to the Internet Archive and take a look at this beautiful artwork!

Fourteen Hundred Cowries
and Other African Tales
by Abayomi Fuja

African Folktales at Internet Archive: Yoruba Legends

Yesterday I featured two books of Yoruba legends published in the 1960s, and today I want to go back in time to a book published in 1929: Yoruba Legends by M. I. Ogumefu, just a click away at Internet Archive:

Although the book is not in the public domain (yet), you will find it reproduced at many websites, including a handy digitized version at Sacred Texts Archive. There are also numerous knock-off print versions, presumably created using the version digitized at Sacred Texts.

After diligent searching, I discovered the identity of this author, and it came as quite a surprise, because she is the author of another book that I own... but I had no idea that M. I. Ogumefu was also Margaret Baumann, and vice versa. M. I.  Ogumefu was Margaret Irene Ogumefu (1905–1990), born in Manchester, Lancashire, England as Margaret Irene Sarah Baumann. She later married Michael Gladstone Ebun Ogumefu, who was from Lagos, Nigeria (that must be quite a story of its own!). He died in 1927, just 25 years old, and after his death she published this book of Yoruba Legends (the book is dedicated to him), plus a book entitled Ajapa the Tortoise under her maiden name Margaret I. Baumann. What's more, she also published dozens of romance novels under the name Marguerite Lees, making her living as a professional writer. (I knew about Margaret Baumann; I didn't know about Marguerite Lees!)

Her book Ajapa the Tortoise is not available at Internet Archive, but it is available as a Kindle book. It was also published in 1929, the same year as Yoruba Legends, and it will be entering the public domain soon, so I expect we will see it at many websites when that happens.

The Yoruba Legends book contains 40 stories; here is the table of contents:

As you can see, the book ends with a cycle of Tortoise stories! So, even though her Ajapa book is not available at Internet Archive, you can read some of the Ajapa stories that she knew here. I'm guessing she learned all these stories from her husband; perhaps there is someone out there who knows more about her life story.

Meanwhile, Yoruba Legends by "M. I. Ogumefu" is just a click away at Internet Archive:

Yoruba Legends

by M. I. (Margaret Irene) Ogumefu

African Folktales at Internet Archive: Nigerian Folk Tales

For this week of stories from Nigeria, I started with some books of Hausa legends (by Skinner, Rattray, and Tremearne), and today I want to focus on the two Nigerian collections of Yoruba folktales published by Barbara Walker: Nigerian Folk Tales (published in 1961) and The Dancing Palm Tree and Other Nigerian Folktales (published in 1968). Both books are just a click away at Internet Archive!

The stories in Nigerian Folk Tales are Yorbua stories told by Olawale Idewu and Omotayo Adu; you can find out more about the storytellers in the introduction to the book. The stories are divided into the following chapters: Tales of Demon Lovers, Pourquoi Stories, Moral Fables, Trickster Tales, and Fertility Tales, and there are useful notes at the back of the book, along with a bibliography.

The book contains illustrations and decorations by Margaret Barbour who did the drawings based on Nigerian artwork; there's a note about the art sources at the beginning of the book.

The second book, The Dancing Palm Tree and Other Nigerian Folktales, contains more stories from Olawale Idewu. This book is intended more for young readers, and it features numerous full-page illustrations by Helen Siegl. Here is her illustration to accompany the story of The Boy and the Leopard, for example:

You will find 37 Yoruba stories in the first book, and 11 additional Yoruba stories in the second book, and both books await you at the Internet Archive. Meanwhile, you can find out more about the Yoruba people and Yoruba language at Wikipedia.

Nigerian Folk Tales

by Barbara K. and Warren S. Walker

The Dancing Palm Tree and Other Nigerian Folktales

by Barbara K. Walker

African Folktales at Internet Archive: Hausa Superstitions and Customs

I started off this week with posts about Skinner's book of Hausa stories and then Rattray's book, and today I want to write about a contemporary of Rattray, A. J. N. Tremearne and his book Hausa Superstitions and Customs, published in 1913, which is just a click away at the Internet Archive:

This monumental book is over 600 pages long, including a lengthy introduction to Hausa culture (appx. 200 pages), followed by 100 stories with detailed notes, along with photographs and drawings, like this:

Earlier,  Tremearne published a series of articles in the journal Folklore entitled "Fifty Hausa Folktales," spread out over the 1910 and 1911 volumes of that journal, and I have collected those articles into a single PDF for people's reading convenience: Fifty Hausa Folktales. 

Together with his wife, Mary Tremearne, he published a book of Hausa stories retold for a young audience, inspired by the popular Brer Rabbit stories of Joel Chandler Harris: Fables and Fairy Tales for Little Folk, or Uncle Remus in Hausaland. The book has illustrations, although the illustrator is not credited. I have collected those illustrations here: Public Domain Art: Tremearne's Hausaland.

Tremearne's career came to a sad end in World War I; he died in 1915 at the Battle of Loos. You can read more about his life and work here. He was only 38 at the time of his death.

Meanwhile, his work lives on, and Tremearne's books await you at Internet Archive: so many stories from the Hausa people of Nigeria to read and enjoy!

Hausa Superstitions and Customs

by A. J. N. Tremearne

African Folktales at Internet Archive: Hausa Folklore, Customs, Proverbs

Following up on Skinner's Hausa translations from yesterday, today I want to feature Hausa Folklore, Customs, Proverbs, etc. by Malam Shaihu, and translated by R. S. Rattray; both Volume 1 and Volume 2 are just a click away at the Internet Archive.

As Rattray explains in his note at the start of Volume 1, the scribes, or malamai, played a crucial role in Hausa culture, so to prepare this book he worked with a malam named Shaihu who wrote out these Hausa stories (sometimes translating into Hausa from Arabic manuscripts), while Rattray then provided the English translation along with a transliteration into the Roman alphabet. Malam Shaihu himself spoke no English. The book itself contains the Hausa text in beautiful Arabic script:

Then Rattray added the Roman transliteration with the English translation below:

In Volume 1, you will find a short history of the Hausa nation, followed by 21 stories that feature human beings as the main characters. Then, in Volume 2, you will find 9 animal stories, plus some accounts of cultural traditions and practices, and finally a section of proverbs, with the Arabic script, transliteration, and translation, just as for the stories:

I've written about Rattray at this blog before, as he is the author of Ashanti Proverbs and Akan-Ashanti Folktales, among other works. You can find out more about his life and career at Wikipedia: Robert Sutherland Rattray. There is even an amusement park named after him, located in Kumasi in Ghana: Rattray Park. Here's a little video about the park:

You cannot just hop over to Rattray Park, but you can find his books just a click away at the Internet Archive:

Hausa Folklore, Customs, Proverbs, etc.
by Malam Shaihu and R. S. Rattray

African Folktales at Internet Archive: Hausa Tales and Traditions

As I mentioned yesterday, the focus for Week 15 will be stories from Nigeria, and I have to begin with the monumental first volume of Hausa stories translated into English by Neil Skinner: Hausa Tales and Traditions, which is just a click away at Internet Archive:

You will find over 250 stories in this book, starting with animal stories (and Spider gets to go first among the animals), followed by stories about human characters and types, then moralizing stories, stories of men and women, a whole section of dilemma tales, and then stories involving legal disputes.

As the title page explains, this is part of a 3-volume series. Dr. Skinner had a very hard time finding a way to publish volumes 2 and 3, but they were eventually published. Those two volumes are not available at the Internet Archive (yet), but there are used copies circulating at Abe and other used booksellers online. Volume 2 contains more tales (tall tales, adventures, aetiological stories, etc.), while Volume 3 contains historical traditions.

Skinner is translating the work of Frank Edgar, who published a monumental collection of Hausa stories (3 volumes of Tatsuniyoyi Na Hausa), and who also left behind a massive collection of unpublished Hausa writings. Edgar's work began in 1910, translating materials that he received from J. A. Burdon, and then Edgar himself began collecting Hausa stories in Nigeria, intended to provide British civil servants with materials for studying Hausa language and learning about Hausa culture. Later this week I'll have something to say about A. J. N. Tremearne who was also involved in this British colonial project, along with R. S. Rattray (whose Ashanti work I've featured earlier here at the blog). 

One of the fascinating aspects of Hausa folklore is the Islamic element. The Hausa were the largest ethnic group in northern Nigeria, in close contact with northern Africa, and thus Middle Eastern cultures, along with the cultures of the Sudan. For more about that, see the detailed foreword to Skinner's book by M. G. Smith (Michael Garfield Smith) which provides an overview of Hausa culture and history. (And Smith is a remarkable scholar too; you can find out more about him at Wikipedia.)

If you want to see the Hausa texts by Frank Edgar, you can hop on over to Hathi Trust, where all three volumes are available (being in the public domain): 

There is an index in the back of Skinner's book that you can use to locate the stories in Edgar's Hausa texts that correspond to Skinner's English translations. 

For example, here is Gizo, the spider, and Zaki, the lion, as recorded by Edgar:

So, enjoy the treasure-trove of stories in Skinner's book at Internet Archive, knowing you can also find the Hausa texts online too, all just a click away thanks to the power of digital libraries.

Hausa Tales and Traditions

by Neil Skinner