African Diaspora at the Internet Archive: Spreadsheet (8)

Wow, it's hard to believe that I've been working on the Diaspora spreadsheet for two months already... but the numbers don't lie, ha ha, and there are not over 6000 individual stories linked from the spreadsheet to the pages of books at the Internet Archive, everything just a click away! You can find it all at the African Diaspora Folktale Spreadsheet, where there are now over 90 separate sources indexed:

And, of course, the big African Folktale Spreadsheet is available also, with over 10,000 stories there. You can find out more about how the spreadsheets work here.

Seeing this spreadsheet growing makes me confident that I'll be able to start working on a Reader's Guide for these sources starting this summer, just like I did for the Reader's Guide to African Folktales at the Internet Archive. For the Diaspora book, I will probably have fewer sources that I include — maybe more like 100 sources, rather than 200 — but I will definitely want to include more public domain stories, with 100 stories instead of 50; the public domain sources for the Diaspora stories are much more abundant, and usually come from folklorists and anthropologists, as opposed to the colonial and missionary contexts of the African books.

Meanwhile, do take a look at the Reader's Guide if you have not done so already; free PDF, epub, and other formats too!

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Stories from the Caribbean

Carrying on with the Caribbean theme this week, here is a fun book of Caribbean folktales for young readers, or readers of any age! Stories from the Caribbean by Petronella Breinburg.

You can see already from the table of contents that the book has a fun design:

The illustrations are by Syrah Arnold and Tina Barber; here's their art for the story of "Bre-nancy and the 13 Plantains."

This book is part of a series, and you can find ALL the other books from the series at the Internet Archive, all with great stories and great design:

Stories from West Africa

by Robert Hull

Stories from India

by Vayu Naidu

Stories from China

by Saviour Pirotta

Stories from the Amazon

by Saviour Pirotta

Stories from Native North America

by Linda Raczek

So, enjoy the Caribbean stories, and maybe you'll want to check out the rest of the series too!

Stories from the Caribbean

by Petronella Breinburg

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: The Magic Orange Tree

This week is turning out to be a week of stories from the Caribbean, so here is today's contribution to the week's collection: The Magic Orange Tree and Other Haitian Folktales by Diane Wolkstein.

This is a collection of 27 stories, which the author collected during her travels in Haiti in the 1970s.

The illustrations are by Elsa Henriquez (you can find out more about this fascinating artist here), and they are full of delightful details:

Plus there are songs in Creole and English in the back of the book if you want to sing/play the songs that are in the stories:

So, this book is really ideal for a first-time reader of Haitian folktales; be sure to read the introduction to get some context for the storytelling performances that provided the stories you will read here. And enjoy! Cric! Crac!

The Magic Orange Tree and Other Haitian Folktales

by Diane Wolkstein

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Greedy Mariani

After doing Anansi stories and more Anansi stories this week so far, I thought I would do another Caribbean book today: Greedy Mariani and Other Folk Tales of the Antilles by Dorothy Sharp Carter.

There are 14 stories in the book, including Anansi, and including Rabbit too ("Compae Rabbit"), and also Bouki and Malice. Carter worked with English, Spanish, and Creole sources as you can see from the acknowledgments in the front of the book. Carter is also the author of a book of central American folktales: The Enchanted Orchard, and Other Folktales of Central America.

Just as yesterday's book was illustrated by a brilliant woman artist, Pamela Colman Smith, so too with this book, which has illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman; you can read more about her work at Wikipedia. Here's an intense one, the doctor facing off against Death:

And here's Goat facing off against Tiger:

You might remember Trina Schart Hyman from other books I've featured at this blog before: Sense Pass King: A Story from Cameroon by her daughter Katrin Tchana; you can find out more about Tchana and this book in the Reader's Guide to African Folktales at the Internet Archive.

And also The Fortune-Tellers by Lloyd Alexander (yes, the Lloyd Alexander of the Prydain Chronicles and so many other books):

So many beautiful books to read and enjoy at the Internet Archive, thanks to Controlled Digital Lending!

Greedy Mariani

and Other Folk Tales of the Antilles

by Dorothy Sharp Carter

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Annancy Stories

Following up on the Anansi books from yesterday, I wanted to share a much older Anansi book, by a surprising author who also did the illustrations for the book: Annancy Stories by Pamela Colman Smith.

Do you recognize her name? First take a look at some of the illustrations and see if they remind you of anything:

Yes, this is Pamela Colman Smith who did the artwork for the famous Waite-Smith tarot deck. I've got a randomizing widget of that deck (find out more) which I'll paste in here; that way you'll see an image from the deck at random whenever you reload this page:

I can definitely see her style here in the Anansi illustrations. How did she come to write this book? Smith lived in Jamaica in the early 1890s when she was a young teenager (she was born in London in 1878), and her mother continued to live there when Smith moved to New York City; you can find out more about her life at Wikipedia, which is also the source for this portrait from 1912:

The book, published in 1899 when Smith was just 21 years old, is a mixture of trickster stories about Anansi and also fairy tales; here is a list of the titles: Annancy and Chim-Chim / De Man an' De Six Poach Eggs / Why Toad Walk 'Pon Four Leg / Annancy an' Tiger Ridin' Horse / Mr. Titman / Why John Crow Hab Peel Head / Candoo / Mother Calbee / How Annancy Win De Five Dubbloon / Morass / Annancy and Gingy Fly / How Annancy Went To Fish Country / Haylefayly an' Pretty Peallope / Paarat, Tiger an' Annancy / Bull-Garshananee / Annancy an' de Nyam Hills / Ticky-Picky Boom-Boom / De Golden Water, de Singin' Tree an' de Talkin' Bird / How Annancy Fooled Death / The Three Sisters / Annancy and Dry Kull; or, Why Hog Hab A Long Mouth / Dog An' De Duckanoo.

So, especially if you are a fan of Smith's tarot deck, take a look at this book, both for the art and for the stories!

Annancy Stories

by Pamela Colman Smith

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Anansi the Spider Man

Since I finished up with Philip Sherlock last week, I wanted to start this week with his Anansi books! Here's the main one: Anansi the Spider Man.

The illustrations here are by Marcia Brown. Artists always have a hard choice with "tiger" in African (where tiger refers to a panther) and African Diaspora stories, especially in places like Jamaica that are without big cats. So, she drew Tiger as a tiger; here's Tiger and Sis Duck:

Here is a list of the stories you will find in that book: From Tiger to Anansi / Brother Breeze and the Pear Tree / Anansi and the Old Hag / Anansi and Turtle and Pigeon / Kisander / The Kling Kling Bird / Bandalee / Yung-Kyung-Pyung / Anansi and the Plantains / Anansi and Fish Country / Ticky-Picky Boom-Boom / Anansi and the Alligator Eggs / Anansi and the Crabs / The Quarrel.

Plus, there is also this smaller collection: The Illustrated Anansi.

This book has lots of colorful illustrations by Petrina Wright; here you can see Alligator and Anansi (who is imagined as more person than spider):

These are the stories you will find: From Tiger to Anansi / Anansi and Turtle and Pigeon / The Quarrel / Anansi and the Crabs.

Sherlock's work was an important source for my collection of "tiny tales" about Anansi from Caribbean sources: Tiny Tales of Anansi (the stories are just 100 words each!).

You can also get that book as an epub or PDF, or even listen to me reading the stories, here: Anansi.LauraGibbs.net.

There can never be too many Anansi stories IMO! Enjoy!

Anansi the Spider Man

by Philip Sherlock

The Illustrated Anansi

by Philip Sherlock

Tiny Tales of Anansi

by Laura Gibbs