African Folktales at Internet Archive: Congo Boy

For today's post, I wanted to share a fun children's book that features one of my favorite kinds of chain tales; it's a story about "trading up" as you will see: Congo Boy: An African Folk Tale, retold by Mollie Clarke. It's just a click away at Internet Archive!

As you might be able to see there, the copy that Internet Archive was marked up by a very young reader. Since those markings appear just at the front of the book, I am not sure the anonymous young reader actually finished the story. 

The illustrations are wonderful, as you can see in this two-page spread:

Meanwhile, the story itself is one that is found throughout Africa; a similar story, for example, is told about the trickster hero Hlakanyana; here's a version collected as far back as the 1860s: Hlakanyana Trades Up.

For a bigger book of stories from the Congo, I can also recommend this book by Phyllis Savory, which is not avalable at Internet Archive, but is available from Hathi Trust: Congo Fireside Tales.

You can see other books by Phyllis Savory that I've shared at this blog also: Bantu Folk Tales and Lion Outwitted by Hare.

So, whether you are looking for just one story to read, or more than one, all these books are available online, just waiting for readers.

Congo Boy: An African Folk Tale

retold by Mollie Clarke

African Folktales at Internet Archive: The Disappointed Lion

After a week of stories from southern Africa, I'll focus this week on stories from central Africa, starting with this book of stories from the Bari people of the South Sudan: The Disappointed Lion and Other Stories by A. N. (Archie) Tucker. The book is just a click away at Internet Archive.

You can see South Sudan on the map here:

The author collected these stories while living in South Sudan in the 1930s stories, and the introduction describes Bari village life during that time of social and cultural transition. Isaya Lukudu at the Loka mission was the author's main informant, along with another Bari man: Lokule Kwaje.

The stories also include music:

The illustrations are by John Farleigh, and are in a very simple and appealing style:

This is a book meant for children, but the author, Archie Tucker, was also a serious scholar of African languages. He was born in South African in 1904 and began his university studies there, but then took his Ph.D. in Linguistics at University College, London. He joined the faculty of their School of Oriental and Africa Studies in 1932 and taught in the SOAS for 39 years. You can read more about his career here. 

So, especially if you can sight-read music and sing along with the tunes here, this is a book you might enjoy! 

The Disappointed Lion and Other Stories
from the Bari of Central Africa

by A. N. Tucker

African Folktales at Internet Archive: Week 9

It's kind of hard to believe this is already the end of Week 9 of this project (which means it is Week 9 of my retirement, since I started doing this right after I retired)... so far, so good! This week the focus was stories from southern Africa, and I haven't done a week focused on central Africa yet, so that will be next week! Meanwhile, here's a round-up of all the books from Week 9, plus the past round-ups: May - June - July.

Bantu Folk Tales from Southern Africa

by Phyllis Savory

The Lion on the Path and Other African Stories

by Hugh Tracey

When Lion Could Fly

and Other Tales from Africa

by Nick Greaves

Nursery Tales, Traditions, and 

Histories of the Zulus

by Henry Callaway

The World and the Word:

Tales and Observations

from the Xhosa Oral Tradition

by Nongenile Masithathu Zenani

The Broken Promise

and Other Traditional Fables from Zimbabwe

by Norman Atkinson