African Tales

by Harold Scheub

Overview

The latest work from Harold Scheub, one of the world's leading scholars of African folktales, is the broadest collection yet assembled with tales from the entire continent of Africa, north to south. It brings together mythic, fantastic, and coming-of-age tales, some transcribed more than a hundred years ago, others dating to modern-day Africa. Scheub includes the work of storytellers from major African language groups, as well as many storytellers whose work is not often heard outside of Africa. This anthology offers a classroom-ready collection that should appeal to any scholar of African literature and culture. Realizing that these tales are part of a dying art, Scheub writes for the inner ear in everyone, bringing an oral tradition to life in written form.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780299209438
Publisher:	University of Wisconsin Press
Publication date:	04/29/2005
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Harold Scheub is the Evjue-Bascom Professor of Humanities in the Department of African Languages and Literature at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is the author of many books, including Story, The Poem in the Story, The Tongue Is Fire: South African Storytellers and Apartheid, and The World and the Word, all published by the University of Wisconsin Press.

Table of Contents

Contents Illustrations 000 Story and Storyteller: The Collection of Stories from the Oral Tradition 000 <LINESPACE> 1. Kwaku Ananse and Aso: Asante (Ghana) 000 2. Akenda Mbani: Apinji (Gabon) 000 3. The Cock: Arabic (Egypt) 000 4. The Hedgehog and the Traveler: Arabic (Mauritania) 000 5. Tale of a Lantern: Arabic (Morocco) 000 6. The Child: Banda (Central African Republic) 000 7. "The Favored Daughter": Batanga (Mpongwe) (Cameroon) 000 8. The African: Berber (Algeria) 000 9. Dschemil and Dschemila: Berber (Libya) 000 10. Half-a-Cock: Berber (Morocco) 000 11. The Boy and the Girl: Bulu (Cameroon) 000 12. Mbewa and Nkerma: Bura (Nigeria) 000 13. Answers: At Home with the Four Cardinal Elements: Dagomba (Togo) 000 14. Death and the Hunter: Dan (Côte d'Ivoire) 000 15. The Man-eating Woman: Dogon (Mali) 000 16. The Twin Brothers: Fiote (Congo) 000 17. Samba Gueladio Diegui: Fuuta Jalon (Peuhl) (Guinea) 000 18. Fountinndouha: Gourmanchéma (Niger) 000 19. The Man and the Leopard: Grebo (Liberia) 000 20. The Two Girls: Hausa (Nigeria) 000 21. "The Fleeing Girls and the Rock": Herero (Namibia) 000 22. The Old Woman: Jindwi (Manyika) (Zimbabwe) 000 23. Thadhellala: Kabyle (Tunisia) 000 24. Revenge: Kamba (Kenya) 000 25. The Cunning Young Woman: Kanuri (Sierra Leone) 000 26. The Little Wise Woman: Khoikhoi (Southern Africa) 000 27. The Old Woman Her Sons and the Python: Kikuyu (Kenya) 000 28. Five Dead Men Attend a Dance: Krio (Sierra Leone) 000 29. The Hole in the Tree: Lamba (Zambia) 000 30. The Jackal and the Little Antelope: Luba (Democratic Republic of Congo) 000 31. Andrianòro: Malagasy (Madagascar) 000 32. The Hare, the Hyena, and the Lioness's Cave: Masai (Kenya) 000 33. Na Kimanaueze: Mbundu (Angola) 000 34. The Hyenas and the Sage: Nandi (Kenya) 000 35. The Youth and His Three Lovers: Nankani (Burkina Faso) 000 36. Kachirambe: Nyanja (Malawi) 000 37. The Girls Who Went to Have Teeth Made for Them: Nyarwanda (Rwanda) 000 38. Nwampfundla: Ronga (Mozambique) 000 39. Mother Runyonga and Her Sons: Rundi (Burundi) 000 40. The Young Man Who Was Carried Off by a Lion: San (Namibia) 000 41. The Magic Mirror: Sena (Mozambique) 000 42. Nyajak: Shilluk (Sudan) 000 43. The Sultan's Wife: Somali (Somalia) 000 44. Gassire's Lute: Soninke (Mali) 000 45. Monyohe: Sotho (Lesotho) 000 46. The Physician's Son and the King of the Snakes: Swahili (Tanzania) 000 47. Untombinde, the Tall Girl: Swati (Swaziland) 000 48. The Man Who Passed the Night in the Middle of the Sea: Tigre (Ethiopia) 000 49. Zili: Tsonga (Mozambique) 000 50. The Hare and the Lion: Tswana (Botswana) 000 51. Spider: Vai (Liberia) 000 52. In Quest of a Wife: Xhosa (South Africa) 000 53. The King's Eyes: Yao (Tanzania) 000 54. "The King and the Kini-kini Bird": Yoruba (Nigeria) 000 55. Untombi-yaphansi: Zulu (South Africa) 000 <LINESPACE> Notes 000 Bibliography 000

Editorial Reviews

Scheub, an expert in the storytellers and the tales of Africa, presents over 40 stories from as many language groups and tribes of the continent. Some tales are short, others lengthy; some are humorous, many quite violent; some are magical, while many are based on the deepest foibles of human nature. As a compiler, Scheub goes to great lengths to capture the tone, rhythm and style of the tellers, many of whom are pictured in the text. His introduction challenges the reader to read as a listener, to bring to the stories a sense of excitement, of drama, and a flair for audience participation like those that first greeted the tales. Recommended for cultural studies. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2005, Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 286p. illus. notes. bibliog., Ages 15 to adult.
—Patricia Moore

KLIATT

"Harold Scheub's masterful African Tales brings together imaginative folktales from almost every African country that together convey a powerful mixture of tricksters, lovers, villains, monsters, and heroes that captivates the reader and leads to a greater appreciation of the human condition."—Elizabeth C. Fine, Virginia Tech

"Enchanting, frightening, funny, ethical, historical, wise—these stories from around the continent tell of every circumstance of life.  I didn't want to put the book down."—Eileen Julien, Indiana University, Bloomington

From the Publisher