53 Notes to the Stories
#1. How We Got the Name “Anansi Tales.” Anansi, or Ananse, is the Akan name for “Spider,” and he is one of the most famous African tricksters. Spider has other names in other West African languages; in Hausa stories, for example, Spider is called Gizo. I have changed the name “tiger” to “leopard” in this story; the word “tiger” in African folktales refers to leopards, cheetahs, servals, and other wild cats (there are no actual tigers in Africa). Leopard is often the dupe of the trickster; see story #6, The Elephant that Wanted to Dance and story #32, The Jackal, the Dove, and the Panther, in which it is the trickster rabbit who fools the leopard.
#2. Wisdom and the Human Race. Fanti-land refers to the home of the Fante, an Akan people who live in Ghana. The name of Anansi’s son, Kweku Tsin, is from the Akan day-name system; Kweku is a name given to a son born on a Wednesday. For more stories from Ghana, see these books in the Bibliography: 12, 13, 18, 20, 32, 37, 55, 90, 136, 165, 199.
#3. Thunder and Anansi. Greed is one of the most distinctive traits of trickster characters like Anansi, as you can see both in this story and in the previous story. For more Spider stories, see these books in the Bibliography: 12, 14, 15, 18, 20, 52, 55, 63, 64, 90, 98, 114, 136, 159, 178.
#4. The Flame Tree. This story is set in the Kyagwe region of central Uganda. The Lake referred to here is Lake Nalubaale (Lake Victoria), which is one of the Great Lakes in the East African Rift Valley. The Buvuma Islands are an island chain in the northern part of the lake. You can see pictures of actual flame trees at Wikipedia: Spathodea. For more stories from Uganda, see these books in the Bibliography: 23, 113, 149, 176.
#5. The Buffalo Maiden. The Mabira Forest is a rainforest in central Uganda. This story includes a song; songs-in-the-stories are a regular feature of African folktales. Most folktale collections do not include the music, but you will find a transcription of the music in #19, How the Animals Dug Their Well.
#6. The Elephant that Wanted to Dance. As in the previous story, the setting is the Mabira rainforest of Uganda. The sem-sem sauce referred to in the story is made with peanuts and sesame. The animals called “rock conies” are also known as rock hyraxes. Although hyraxes look like rodents (hence the name “rock conies”), they are actually in the same animal family, Paenungulata, as elephants and manatees.
#7. The Language of the Beasts. This is an Amazigh (Berber) story from northern Africa. The jerboa referred to here is a tiny rodent with a very long tail, as in the English “gerbil.” The story of the man who learned the language of the animals is a famous folktale that appears in many variations (Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 670), often focused on punishing the wife, as here. This variation is distinctive for the elaborate explanation of just how the man gained his unusual power. For more examples of ATU 670, see Ashliman’s collection of stories which you can read at the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine: The Language of Animals.
#8. Half-a-Rooster. This is another Amazigh (Berber) story from North Africa. For more stories from northern Africa, see these books in the Bibliography: 10, 24, 50, 77, 88, 115, 142, 172. For another pairing of wise-and-foolish like the two wives in this story, see the story of the two sisters, #41, The Snake with Five Heads.
#9. The Hare and the Lion. Sungura, or Soongoora in Bateman’s spelling, is the Swahili name for the hare, and you will find other Swahili names for the animals in this story. For more Swahili stories, see these books in the Bibliography: 4, 25, 130, 180. For a different trickster using the “hey, house!” trick, see #33, The Lion, the Hyena, and the Fox.
#10. Goso the Teacher. This story is an example of a chain tale, which is an extremely popular folktale genre in Africa. This specific type of chain tale is called a “cumulative tale,” and you can find out more at Wikipedia: Cumulative Tale. Cumulative tales are found in folk traditions around the world, but they are most widespread in Africa and in India. For more cumulative chain tales, see story #44, A Chain of Circumstances, and story #45, The Spider Passes on a Debt.
#11. Mkaah Jeechonee, the Boy Hunter. The name of the sultan in this story, Maajnoon, is an Arabic name meaning “madman,” which certainly fits his role as a foolish ruler here. This story is an example of a Swallowing Monster type of story, a widespread tale type in Africa. For another Swallowing Monster, see story #18, The Three Little Eggs. For another royal child who is not able to recognize the animals in the world around them because they have led a sheltered life, see story #27, A Different Story about Nzambi’s Daughter.
#12. How Mafani Earned His Bride. This story from the Wute people of Cameroon provides another example of a chain tale (see story #10); this time it is a “trading up” type of story where, from a small start, the hero gains in wealth, trade by trade by trade. The ashes from the ceiba tree (silk-cotton tree) were used as a substitute for salt, which is why the wind is glad to receive the salt instead of the ashes.
#13. How the Turtle Outwitted the Pig. This is a story of the Kwe (Wakweli) people of Cameroon. The turtle, or tortoise, is another one of the great African trickster characters. For more Tortoise stories, see these books in the Bibliography: 58, 151, 156, 187, 198, 200. The next story, #14, The Punishment of the Turtle, is also about the trickster turtle.
#14. The Punishment of the Turtle. This is a Basuto legend from southern Africa. The boastful and greedy character of the trickster is on full display here, and the story features a song sung by the trickster turtle. In this case, the song has incriminating lyrics in which the trickster boasts about his crimes (“By cunning I have beaten all”), but he sings his song once too often.
#15. Mantis and Will-o-the-Wisp. The Mantis in this story is the trickster god of the San people. Mantis is brave but also boastful, and his boasting can get him into trouble. The opponent that Mantis faces in this story is called Will-o-the-Wisp (a name borrowed from English folklore), and he is also known as “Eyes-on-his-Feet.” Writing in 1901, J. T. Hahn explained how the creature supposedly “roams around the veld and kindles a big fire at night to attract people who have lost their way; then he fries and eats them” (cited by Sigrid Schmidt in South African |Xam Bushman Traditions, p. 53).
#16. Mantis and Aardwolf. The Afrikaans name “aardwolf” means earth-wolf, a relative of the hyena; its scientific name is Proteles cristata. In this story you will meet Mantis’s son-in-law Kwammanga again (his name means “rainbow”), and also his grandson, Ichneumon, an African mongoose. For more stories from the San people, see these books in the Bibliography: 35, 125, 173.
#17. The Rooster’s Kraal. Otters are found throughout sub-Saharan Africa; you can read more about them at Wikipedia: African Clawless Otters. For another story about transformation and the lifting of a curse, see story #41, The Snake with Five Heads. For another story with a rooster as one of the main characters, see story #8, Half-a-Rooster.
#18. The Three Little Eggs. In a footnote, the authors explain that another word for the monster here called “Inzimu” is “Imbula.” A “kaross” is an animal skin garment worn by the Khoekhoe and other peoples of southern Africa, and the word “amasi” refers to fermented milk that is something like yogurt.
#19. How the Animals Dug Their Well. This is one of the Ndau stories with songs that C. Kamba Simango contributed to the book; the photo shows Simango playing a kalimba. You can find more examples of music in these books in the Bibliography: 41, 166, 176, 190, 192. For another story about the rabbit stealing water, see story #28, The Rabbit and the Antelope.
#20. Death of the Hare. This is another one of the Ndau stories contributed by C. Kamba Simango. For more stories about the trickster rabbit (or hare), see these books in the Bibliography: 3, 4, 78, 103, 131, 146, 185. For another story of foolish imitation and its dangerous consequences, see the final episode of story #8, Half-a-Rooster.
#21. Cunning Rabbit and His Well. The “cunnie rabbit” here is not a rabbit at all; instead, this is the tiny antelope, Neotragus pygmaeus, who is a trickster figure in western Africa; see Wikipedia: Royal Antelope. For help with the English used here, see the vocabulary listing in the book. You can find out more at Wikipedia: West African Pidgin English. The author supplies a footnote for the phrase “do’ clean” as follows: “When into the darkness of a mud hut the first rays of dawn penetrate sufficiently to afford from within a clear-cut outline of the door-way, the time is designated by do’ clean.”
#22. A Ghost Story. See the previous note for information about the pidgin English used in this story. For another story about an animal who is able to become a human, as the dog does here, see story #42, The Leopard of the Fine Skin. For more stories from Sierra Leone, see these books in the Bibliography: 63, 82, 114.
#23. How a Hunter Obtained Money from His Friends. Calabar, referred to in the story, is a cultural center in southern Nigeria. The “rods” referred to in the story are metal rods that were used as a form of currency in western Africa. This is another example of a chain tale; for a similar type of chain tale, see story #44, A Chain of Circumstances.
#24. Of the Fat Woman who Melted Away. In this story, the new wife cannot go out in the sun because the sun’s heat will melt her. For another story about a bride unable to go out in the sunlight, see story #40, Tanga, the Child of Night. For more stories from Nigeria, see these books in the Bibliography: 8, 30, 51, 57, 58, 59, 67, 86, 151, 152, 153, 156, 177, 185, 191, 193, 194.
#25. The Leopard, the Squirrel, and the Tortoise. The motif of “eating the mothers” is one that recurs in different African folktales. In this story, the tortoise does not succeed in saving his mother, but in other stories, the trickster uses some cunning trick to save his mother, as in this Bulu folktale from Cameroon: Tortoise, Leopard, and Their Mothers.
#26. How The Spider Won and Lost Nzambi’s Daughter. In Congo mythology, there is a sky-god called Nzambi Mpungu, and there is also a goddess, Nzambi, who rules the earthly realm. This story and the next story are about the goddess Nzambi, while Nzambi Mpungu also appears in this story as well. The ending of this story is very similar to a dilemma tale, but instead of leaving the competing claims open for the audience to debate, the storyteller lets the goddess Nzambi provide her own surprising resolution to their dispute. For another example of a trial by fire, such as the rat undergoes here, see the final episode in story #30, How Isuro the Rabbit Tricked Gudu.
#27. A Different Story about Nzambi’s Daughter. See the previous story for a note about Nzambi, goddess on the earth. Here is a note provided by the author about the paint-house, where young women were taken after their first menstrual period: “Here she is painted red, and carefully fed and treated until they consider her ready for marriage, when she is washed and led to her husband. But if she has not a husband waiting for her, she is covered over with a red cloth and taken round by women to the different downs until someone is found anxious to have her.”
#28. The Rabbit and the Antelope. The rabbit’s use of incriminating names (Not-Done-Yet, Half-Done-Now, All-Done) is similar to the use of incriminating song lyrics in which the trickster boasts of his tricks; see, for example, the boasting turtle in story #14, The Punishment of the Turtle. The casca-test in this story refers to the use of an emetic, Erythrophleum guinense, to prove guilt or innocence. There are many different forms of ordeal-by-poison; according to the practice described in this story, the one who gets sick first is the guilty party. The sticky figure that traps the rabbit here is the African origin of the famous “tar-baby” motif in African American folktales: Wikipedia: Tar Baby. For another story about the rabbit stealing water, see story #19, How the Animals Dug Their Well.
#29. Motikatika. There are many forms of divination used in Africa, including the use of bones as in this story. For more information, see Wikipedia: African Divination.
#30. How Isuro the Rabbit Tricked Gudu. This story involves another trial by ordeal (this time with fire); for another trial by ordeal also involving the rabbit, see story #28, The Rabbit and the Antelope. For another story about rival traveling companions, see #46, The Hyena and the Spider Visit the King.
#31. The Sacred Milk of Koumongoe. For another story about an underwater world, see #40, Tanga, the Child of Night. In that story, it is the mother, not the child, who dwells under the water.
#32. The Jackal, the Dove, and the Panther. The jackal is another one of the important African animal tricksters, and he is also a major trickster in the folktales of India. This story shows how a trickster tale can grow as the focus shifts from one episode to another and to another: jackal and dove, jackal and heron, jackal and panther, and then finally the panther, the baboon, and the bees, but with the jackal still chiming in from a distance. For another trickster story that plays out in a series of episodes, see #34, How the Fox Followed the Elephant.
#33. The Lion, the Hyena, and the Fox. This story features yet another one of the important African animal tricksters: the fox, who is also a major trickster in the European folk tradition. For another story where the fox wisely intervenes, see #49, How the Fox Saved the Frog’s Life. For a different trickster using the “hey, house!’ trick, see #9, The Hare and the Lion.
#34. How the Fox Followed the Elephant. As in the previous story from Ethiopia, the fox is once again the trickster, and the story plays out in a series of episodes: fox and elephant, fox and merchants, fox and jackal. For another trickster story that plays out in a series of episodes, see #32, The Jackal, the Dove, and the Panther.
#35. The Debbi. The story makes reference to the Gash-Barka region in what is now Eritrea, to the north of Ethiopia and east of Sudan. For more stories from Ethiopia and the countries around it, see these books in the Bibliography: 40, 54, 66, 97, 118, 119, 120, 128. For more about fetishes, see story #42, The Leopard of the Fine Skin, and #48, How the Gazelle Won His Wife.
#36. The Elephant and the Rabbit. In this story, the rabbit tricks the foolish little hyena into singing a song with incriminating lyrics (“stopping up and letting out”). For another example of incriminating lyrics, see story #14, The Punishment of the Turtle, in which the trickster turtle sings an incriminating song about himself.
#37. The Frog and the Chameleon. In this animal courtship story, the frog and the chameleon begin as friends, but they end as rivals. Compare the rivalry between the rabbit and the baboon in story #30, How Isuro the Rabbit Tricked Gudu. For another story about an animal courtship, see #48, How the Gazelle Won His Wife.
#38. The Man and the Sheep. This story begins with realistic details but quickly turns into a supernatural story. For another story that involves consulting with medicine-men, see story #42, The Leopard of the Fine Skin (in that story it is the animal who does the consulting).
#39. The Horns of Plenty. This story of the magical horns is a popular folktale type in southern Africa. For another animal helper, see the horse in story #42, The Leopard of the Fine Skin.
#40. Tanga, the Child of Night. For another story of a bride who cannot come out in the daytime, see story #24, Of the Fat Woman who Melted Away, and for another story about an underwater world, see story #31, The Sacred Milk of Koumongoe. In that story, it is the child, not the mother, who dwells under the water.
#41. The Snake with Five Heads. The amasi referred to in the story is a kind of thickened milk, something like yogurt. For a modern retelling of this story, see John Steptoe’s Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters, which is book #181 in the Bibliography, and for another story about the lifting of a curse, see story #17, The Rooster’s Kraal.
#42. The Leopard of the Fine Skin. Nassau’s book contains stories from Mpongwe, Benga, and Fang storytellers. This story comes from a Mpongwe storyteller at Libreville, in what is now Gabon. For another story that involves consulting with medicine-men (as the leopard does here), see story #38, The Man and the Sheep. For another animal helper, see the ox in story #39, The Horns of Plenty.
#43. Tortoise in a Race. This story comes from a Benga storyteller. Tales about a slow animal who defeats a fast animal in a race by using substitutes like this is one of the most popular African folktale types: different slow animals (tortoise, snail, etc.) race different fast animals (antelope, rabbit, etc.), and the slow animal wins by using substitutes. The tortoise’s trickery here stands in sharp contrast to the tortoise in the famous Aesop’s fable about the race between the tortoise and the hare, where “slow and steady wins the race.”
#44. A Chain of Circumstances. This cumulative chain tale (see note #10 above) comes from the Fang people who live in Equatorial Guinea and also in northern Gabon and southern Cameroon.
#45. The Spider Passes on a Debt. This Hausa story is another example of a cumulative chain tale; see the note to story #10 above for more information. For more Hausa stories, see these books in the Bibliography: 165, 177, 185, 191.
#46. The Hyena and the Spider Visit the King. This Hausa story focuses on the greediness of the hyena, who is not very cunning, in contrast to the spider’s combination of both cunning and greed as seen in other spider stories. For another story about rival traveling companions, see #30, How Isuro the Rabbit Tricked Gudu.
#47. The Woman who Bore a Clay Pot. Tremearne has preserved here in the English version some of the ideophones used by the storyteller, such as “kop kop kop” for chopping the wood and “pau” for when a blow is struck. You can read more about ideophones, which are a distinctive feature of many African languages, at Wikipedia: Ideophones. For another story featuring a heroic supernatural child, see story #29, Motikatika.
#48. How the Gazelle Won His Wife. You can learn more about African fetishes at Wikipedia: Fetishism. For an example of medicine that really does bring the dead back to life, see story #43, Tortoise in a Race. For another story about animal courtship, see #37, The Frog and the Chameleon.
#49. How the Fox Saved the Frog’s Life. The story of tricking a foolish animal back into the trap is a famous folktale found in many traditions (Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 155). For more examples, see Ashliman’s collection of stories which you can read at the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine: Ingratitude Is the World’s Reward. The story starts out being about the frog and his many wives, but we don’t find out what happens to the wives in the end of the story. Since the fox ended up with the peanuts, I’m afraid the frog’s wives never did get any new clothes! For another story where the fox wisely intervenes, see #33, The Lion, the Hyena, and the Fox.
#50. How the Squirrel Repaid a Kindness. This delightful story comes from the Congo; for more stories from the Congo, see these books in the Bibliography: 33, 43, 68, 107, 167, 197.
