African Folktales at Internet Archive: Chinyanja and Kimbundu

I just realized that I promised earlier this week, when writing about Zimani's Drum, that I would share Rattray's classic collection of Chinyanja stories this week, but I forgot to do that... so, since this is the last post for this week, I want to make sure to do that: Some Folklore Stories and Songs in Chinyanja by R. S. Rattray. 

Chinyanja (also Chewa or Nyanja) is a Bantu language that is spoken in Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe; you can find out more at Wikipedia. The book has the Chinyanja stories in the front, and then literal English translations in the back. There are trickster animal stories about both the rabbit, whose name is Kalulu in this language, and also about the tortoise, who is Kamba. In addition to the 24 stories, there is also a section of riddles and proverbs, and don't miss the detailed notes in the back.

You probably recognize Rattray's name by now; this is one of his first linguistic projects, published in 1907. I've written about some of Rattray's later projects here at the blog: his book of Hausa Folklore, plus his book of both Ashanti Proverbs and his Akan-Ashanti Folktales. You can find out more about Rattray's life and career at Wikipedia.

I also want to include in today's post another classic collection of African stories from this same time period: Folktales of Angola collected by Heli Chatelain and published way back in 1894. 

This amazing book contains 50 folktales in the original Kimbundu text (like Nyanja , this is also a Bantu language; more about Kimbundu) with English translations and also detailed explanatory and comparative notes in the back of the book, including information about the storytellers.

Because these books are in the public domain, that means they are available not just for digital check-out at the Internet Archive; you can access the books at any time and download them in a variety of formats. So, an abundance of traditional stories await you in these books, with the original language texts so that you can look up specific words if you are curious; I'm always curious to learn the names of the animals in different languages, and you can also see the patterns of words in the lyrics to the songs too. There are not beautiful illustrations in these books like in other books I've featured this week, but there are some beautiful stories!

Some Folklore Stories and Songs in Chinyanja

by R. S. Rattray

Folktales of Angola

by Heli Chatelain 

African Folktales at Internet Archive: The Great Tug of War

With the theme this week being stories from southern Africa, that is a perfect excuse to share this book of folktales told by Beverley Naidoo: The Great Tug of War and Other Stories, and it's just a click away at Internet Archive.

There are wonderful animal stories in here: The Great Tug-of-War (which you see there on the cover), Little Animals Should Not Make Fun of Big Animals!, Who Shall Drink?, The Race, King Lion in Love, The Lion Who Danced With Dinner, The Hare and the Horns, and Does One Good Turn Deserve Another? You can find out more about Beverley Naidoo's life and work at Wikipedia and at her website: BeverleyNaidoo.com

The illustrations are by Piet Grobler, and he brings so much personality to all the animal characters (and you can find out more about Grobler's work at his website). Here is Tswhene the baboon carrying away Mmutla the rabbit (the animals have their Tswana names; see the list in the back of the book):

You'll also find this traditional African version of the "tar-baby" story, where it is Khudu the tortoise who smears himself with sticky stuff to trap the thieving rabbit:

I first became aware of Beverley Naidoo's work because of her edition of Aesop's fables, also illustrated by Piet Grobler, which takes an African-focused approach to the stories (an approach that I'm increasingly persuaded is what we need in order to understand the range of Aesopic stories); you can find her Aesop book at Internet Archive also: Aesop's Fables. 

Here is how Grobler depicted Aesop being captured and carried away to the north as a slave:

There are already some distinctively African animals in the Greco-Roman collection of Aesop's fables (which has always been part of the argument for an African component to the Aesop tradition in the ancient world), and Naidoo has recast the fables here with African characters, like this story about the goat and the fox in the well recast as a the story of a jackal and a klipspringer:

Whether you read Naidoo's retellings of traditional African folktales, or her African take on Aesop's fables, you get to enjoy Grobler's illustrations in both books. Both highly recommended!

The Great Tug of War

by Beverley Naidoo

African Folktales at Internet Archive: Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters

Carrying on with the southern Africa theme for this week, I am pleased to feature this amazing children's book written and illustrated by John Steptoe: Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, and it's just a click away at Internet Archive. 

As you can see already on the title page, the illustrations are gorgeous. The landscape of Steptoe's book was inspired by the land of Zimbabwe. The characters' names are Shona, and the book is dedicated to the children of South Africa. 

The book was published in 1987 and won the Caldecott Award and also the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration. It's since been made into a musical: video preview.

Sadly, John Steptoe died of AIDS in 1989, only 38 years old; at the time of his death, he had written and illustrated 10 children's books and illustrated 6 more. To honor his memory, American Library Association established the John Steptoe Award for New Talent. Steptoe's daughter Bweela was the model for the daughter in Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters. and his son Javaka Steptoe is also an artist and book illustrator; his book Radiant Child about Jean-Michel Basquiat won the 2017 Caldecott Award (find out more at his website).

The story is based on a folktale from Theal's Kaffir Folk Lore of 1895, an important collection of Khosa folktales (the insulting term "kaffir" was first used for the Xhosa people and then came to be a term of disrespect for any Black person in South Africa). Theal's book is available at Internet Archive, along with many other websites, as it is in the public domain.

The story Steptoe is using, The Story Of Five Heads, is a classic African tale-type about two sisters, one who is kind and one who is not, and how the kind girl receives her reward in the end. 

It's a wonderful fairy tale, told beautifully and with beautiful illustrations on every page:

So, click and enjoy; this book is a perfect introduction to the world of African fairy tales:

Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters
by John Steptoe

African Folktales at Internet Archive: Traditional Tales from Namibia

Carrying on with the this week's theme of stories from southern African, here is The Stolen Water and Other Stories: Traditional Tales from Namibia by Jennifer Davis, just a click away at Internet Archive.

This book contains 25 folktales, and in the acknowledgments, you'll see that the author thanks the many people who helped in gathering these stories, which is a welcome contrast to many older books (like Savory's Zulu book yesterday) in which there is not credit given to the people who helped in collecting and recording the stories. The book was published in Windhoek, Namibia in 1993:

The illustrations are by Libby Costandius, and there are LOTS of them, which really helps bring the story to life. You can see in this screenshot that the stories are abundantly illustrated:

Here is Jackal, dressed up as a dancing girl, hoping to crash a party and eat all the food:

And the illustrations are helpful for imagining the dangerous supernatural characters too, like the monster in the story of "Nehova and the Monster."

So, if you like stories about people or animals or supernatural creatures, you will find them all here, just a click away at Internet Archive:

The Stolen Water and Other Stories:
Traditional Tales from Namibia
by Jennifer Davis

African Folktales at Internet Archive: Zulu Fireside Tales

The focus this week is stories from southern Africa, so I wanted to feature one more book by Phyllis Savory, a South African author who wrote many collections of folktales retold. Here's her Zulu Fireside Tales, which is just a click away at the Internet Archive.

This collection was published in 1961, and as Savory explains in the introduction, she had met a Zulu girl named Duduzele who told her some Zulu stories, and then Savory started working with Duduzele's mother to learn more stories. As is typical (and unfortunate), Savory does not credit the mother by name, and instead has taken the stories and published them under her own name. But at least she did record the name of the girl whose stories provided the beginning of this book.

As often there are songs that form part of the stories, and the words to the songs are provided in both Zulu and English:

The illustrations are by Sylvia Baxter, and include both half-page and full-page illustrations, like these:

The other books by Savory that I've blogged about previously are: Congo Fireside Tales, Bantu Folk Tales from Southern Africa, and Lion Outwitted by Hare and Other African Tales.

So, the book of Zulu stories and all these other books by Phyllis Savory await you at Internet Archive, just a click away!

Zulu Fireside Tales

by Phyllis Savory

African Folktales at Internet Archive: Zimani's Drum / Lazy Sun

After a week of stories from Nigeria, I'm going to focus on southern African stories this week, starting with a pair of books by Melinda Lilly: Zimani's Drum: A Malawian Tale and Kwian and the Lazy Sun: A San Myth, both books just a click away at Internet Archive (along with some other wonderful books that Lilly has written). 

Lilly's source for Zimani's Drum is the story "The Blind Man and the Hunchback" from Rattray's Folklore Stories and Songs in Chinyanja (a book I'll be featuring later this week). Zimani is the blind man who travels with the help of his brother Cikungwa. You can read the source story here online. You can see how Lilly worked with some essential plot elements from the original story while also transforming it into more of a feel-good story for children. 

The San story comes from Bleek's book, Specimens of Bushman Folklore, and it is one of the stories told by Kabbo: "The Children Are Sent to Throw the Sleeping Sun into the Sky." I've blogged about Kabbo and Bleek's book here, and you can read that source story online. In this case, Lilly's changes to the story are much more dramatic, bringing the San mythological character Mantis into the story; you will find many stories about Mantis here in Bleek's book, and also in the book Mantis and His Friends.

The illustrations are by Charles Reasoner, and both his drawings of people and of animals are very lovely. Here are two pages of illustrations from the book about Zimani:

And here are two pages of illustrations from the book about the Sun:

You might also remember Lilly from a book I blogged about earlier, also illustrated by Reasoner: Wanyana and Matchmaker Frog: A Bagandan Tale.

These are lovely children's books and both have the added advantage of being based on public domain source material so that you can look and compare for yourself what story Lilly has told in these books and the stories that were recorded by Bleek and by Rattray over 100 years ago.

Zimani's Drum: A Malawian Tale

Kwian and the Lazy Sun: A San Myth