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

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