When an elder dies, a library is burned

The words of Elizabeth Lindsey on TEDTalks, "When an elder dies, a library is burned", is so much truer for cultures that relied on oral histories.

I think of all the burned libraries in African history and wonder if it matters. Why is it even important to preserve the past. What does it have to do with the future? And I do not have an answer. But I have a very strong gut feeling that it is important, I just can't put in in words. Yet.

According to Elizabeth Lindsey's bio, she'll be setting out on a 186 day global expedition to chronicle teachings critical to navigating the complexity of our times. That will be interesting to follow, and perhaps, will help me better clarify why we need to preserve our past.

See her TED Talk below:

Book Review: Greedy Spider

The author of Greedy Spider, Bakeh N. Wleh Nagbe, mailed me a copy of his children's picture book.

I am delighted at the opportunity to introduce readers to Greedy Spider, a folktale from Liberia, West Africa. The review is posted at allfolktales.

Open thread for folktale submission

Every now and then, I've had people write to ask how they can contribute stories. It would be wonderful to have as many people contribute new stories or their versions of popular tales. I am thinking (as time and other engagements allow) of how to make this easy and seamless. But in the meantime, I'm offering these options:

1. Send me an email to omowunmi [at] allfolktales.com and I will post your story on the website. And I will send you a confirmation email.
2. Post your story as a comment to this blog post. I will monitor this thread and copy stories to the main website. You may also send at email to notify me, and that way, I can send you back a confirmation email once I copy your story to the main website.

I believe any community effort should be guarded with guidelines, so here goes:

• No spam. Obviously, any spam comments will be deleted.
• Subject is African Folktales. I think we all understand that.
• Optional: Include information about the story (for example, where's it's from, where you heard it from, and whatever else you fancy)

Please note that guidelines may be revised depending on the direction the wind blows. Thanks for your participation.

Ancient writing in West Africa

Today, I came across the subject of the Olmecs. The Olmecs were a people who lived in South Central Mexico from the 1400BC to 400BC. Apparently, there are some who believe that a large population of the Olmecs were of African origin, specifically, of West African origin. I did google searches and visited several pages but did not read anything that led credence to that claim. What piqued my interest however was reference to some ancient Olmec script that was similar to an ancient Mende script.

What writing could the Mende, a West African people, have had in 400BC?

I do not mean to be condescending towards the idea of ancient African West African writing. As a child, I hoped that some ancient artifacts will be discovered and our history would be uncovered, but I have now come to accept that we did not write, we did not build monuments (none so ancient) that have withstood our climate. Every now and then, I feel a fleeting sense of regret that my people, my ancestors did not develop some form of writing. But are my feelings misplaced?

I found a reference to a book by Saki Mafundikwa, a Zimbabwean graphics artist, "Afrikan Alphabets: The story of writing in Afrika". I was skeptical, afterall, there was writing in Egypt. The Egyptian writing that could not migrate across the Sahara. Even though I recall reading a book long ago (title I cannot recall) that claimed that Yorubas migrated from Egypt, I will maintain the assumption that writing did not migrate with them. But I digress...

Sample pages from "Afrikan Alphabets: The story of writing in Afrika" provide a clue as to what I may find in the book.

The commonly held belief is that most graphic symbols in Afrikan societies are merely decorative. In fact, in Afrikan culture, symbols fill an important communication role. There are stories to be found in the rock art of the San people in southern Afrika; the carvings on the calabashes of the Kikuyu of Kenya. There is information stored in tally sticks like the Ishango Bone from The Congo, the knotted strings of Nigerian Aroko, and the scarification found in many Afrikan societies. The meaning attributed to these symbols and artifacts qualifies as proto-writing, or forerunners of writing. Most of these symbol systems are several thousand years old, suggesting that Afrika has a much older tradition of writing than some have recognized.

I am one of those who believe that graphic symbols on calabashes, wooden statues, rocks are decorative. Knotted strings of Nigerian Aroko? Is that the iroko tree? Well, I'm ready to be educated, or re-educated about the history of writing in West Africa.

Once I read the book, I'll be back to share my thoughts and new learnings.

A precious cow from Tales by Moonlight

I set a goal to publish at least one book review per month and yet, February ended without any review. I intend to make it up. The good news is that the book is already picked, "Tales by Moonlight" by Nigerian Television Authority, so my review will follow shortly.

In the meantime, here is one of the stories from the book about a man, his three sons and a precious cow. I was very amused by the story when I first read it. The idea that a man disowned his children because of a cow seemed ridiculous. Until I started thinking of the cow as less of a cow but more of an asset.

The story is of Fulani origin. The Fulani are traditionally a normadic, cattle-rearing group that inhabited parts of West Africa. The cow must have been symbolic of the wealth of a Fulani man. It was all the property he had. The cow dictated the man's lifestyle - the cow's needs determined where the man resided at any point in time. Everything was done to satisfy the cow. So it should come as no big stretch of the imagination what would happen if a man fell prey to a manipulative and vindictive cow. I imagine that this story may have been used to illustrate why an alternative lifestyle was preferable to the pastoralist one. One where man farmed, made crafts and was more in control of his destiny.

The images used within the story text came from illustrations in the book.

Destructive truth tests and true lies

Long before lie detector tests were invented in the Western world, Africa had a similar but deadlier test. Let's call it a destructive truth test (DTT). Destructive, because if the test subject tested negative for truth, the test subject would be destroyed. No recourse, no appeal. The result of lying during a DTT was instant death.

For an example of how this ancient science, DTT worked, read the story of the three brothers and the pot of porridge.

I wonder why the characters in the various stories did not 'fess up at the last minute, opting for shame rather than death. Perhaps they doubted the authenticity of the tests. It turns out that Ijapa the tortoise and his wife,Yanrinbo were skilled at fooling the test. In the book, True Lies by George Shannon and John O'Brien, Ijapa and Yanribo were accused of stealing their neighbor's yams. They were summoned by the Chief who administered a herbal drink DTT. "My hands have not picked a single yam", Ijapa said, swearing to die if he was lying. Yanribo also swore that she had never set her foot near her neighbor's storehouse. Neither one fell down and died and they were therefore exonorated from the crime. The truth was that Ijapa carried Yanribo on his back to the store house and Yanribo's hands picked the yams. They had told true lies.

One review per month. At least.

A Reviews section has been added to the site. I've started off with two reviews:

• Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears: A West African Tale by Verna Aadema, illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon
• Sikulu and Harambe by the Zambezi River: An African version of the Good Samaritan Story, by Kunle Ogunneye and illustrated by Bruce McCorkindale

Since I'm so busy - my perennial excuse for not updating this site - I won't be surprised if you wonder if I will keep up the reviews. So I'm setting a goal and I'm doing it publicly.

I will do at least ONE review per month

A modest goal. Almost too simple. So I must not disappoint. Right? In fact, I feel it's a goal I can exceed except I remember that I planned to begin the reviews last November... Still, an easy to meet goal. I only hope I will not run out of material to review too quickly.

Girl in drum, gourd seeds, do these ring a bell?

Do you recall a folktale about a greedy boy, his sister and gourd seeds? Or one about a monster who traps a girl in a drum? A reader, Mary, is looking for some folktale volumes she had read as a kid. Here's her note and my response.

Mary said: I learned to read from a series of collected fables African fables,
Aesop's fables, etc. They were old rebound volumes in 1978. they were short
children's stories and had black/white wood cutting illustrations. I would love
to find out if these texts are still available. As far as the stories: I remember one about a girl whose parents died and her greedy brother took all the family goods and left only the hut. She found a gourd seed in the hut, planted it, and made a living selling gourds. The brother came back and was enraged that she "stole" from him and took the gourds, even cutting off her hand when she tried to protect them. I can't remember how it ends. I also remember a story about monster who traps a girl with a beautiful voice in his drum and makes her sing whenever he beats the drum. A prince found out about the girl and helped her escape, putting bees in the drum. When the monster beat the drum and it didn't sing, he opened it to beat the girl but instead the enraged bees flew out and stung the monster to death. Ringing any bells?

I said: Do you recall the title of any these books? I'm not familiar with the stories you mentioned. However, the one about the girl trapped in a drum does ring a bell. But it's a different version of the story. I recall a story where Ijapa (Tortoise) traps a boy with a beautiful singing voice in a drum. I can't remember how the boy came to be trapped in the first place or the rest of the story but I'm sure Ijapa suffered for his deceit as usual. I'm sorry I'm unable to help but I really appreciate you sharing these tidbits. Who knows, perhaps another reader recognizes these stories.

If these stories do ring a bell for you, please share your memories. Thanks.

Take a 5 minute survey

A short 5 minute survey is up at surveymonkey to help provide some insight into reader's needs.

I've wondered, ever since the first visitors trickled into allfolktales.com, "who visits my site?". Are they kids reading folktales for fun? Or are they reading for an assignment? Are they teachers? Are they parents? What are they really looking for when they stumble on this site?

I've received hints through readers who send me notes to ask questions or just to encourage my efforts. But I've never sought to get complete answers. Now, some 2 years and 10 months later, it finally occurs to me to ask. Just ask. So I headed over to surveymonkey.com and created a survey. And I'm asking you, allfolktales readers, to please participate in the survey.

What to do with survey results
You may be wondering, "what do you intend to do with the information"?

I mentioned in my last blog post that I have dreams for allfolktales.com. I'm ready to take this site to the next level. I'm overwhelmed by the magnitude of what I'm dreaming of, but intend to take it one step at a time, closer to that dream. While figuring out how to take the next big step, I intend to work on all those little details that I have ignored - a tweak here and a tweak there.

While tweaking here and there, I want to be sure that I keep you in mind. What do you need from this site? What do you use today? How can this site serve you better? How can I know if I do not ask? So I'm asking you to please take the survey and let me know allfolktales can serve you better?

Thank you
Thank you for taking the time to help. And thank you for visiting allfolktales.com

- Omowunmi

Putting my vision out here

For months now, I've been thinking about where I want to take this site, what I want to do next. I'm having a hard time recalling more stories, so is that it? Does that signify the end of this project? "No no no." It can't end like this. Something in me rebels against that thought. But what to do? I don't know. Or, I didn't know.

In the past few weeks, my thoughts are beginning to crystallize into a clearer vision. But it is a vision greater than myself. Greater than my limitations. "What are my limitations?" I decided I will not let those, real or imagined, hamper my vision. I will go about making it happen.

I started allfolktales.com because of my daughter. I wanted to share these stories with her. She's turning five now and reading on her own. I want her to read the stories. I have a son who's one, and soon, I want him the site to be a resource for him too. I want kids to be able to read folktales on the site.

That's the essense of my vision. You can't write for kids and not have pictures. But alas, I don't know how to draw! This inability had loomed large from the onset. Back in June 2006, I cited a lack of colorful illustrations as one of the primary reasons I found it difficult recalling the folktales I heard and read when I was young. That statement should have informed my vision. I thought about it, I wished it, but concluded, "I cannot draw". I decided to focus on what I could do - collect the stories. Collection will be ongoing, for as long as I can find a new story, but it's time to shift my focus. Except, did I already mention, I cannot draw?

But I have now decided, my vision will not be limited by me. In the past, I was reluctant to publicize my goals for the site because I thought to myself, "what if I can't do it?", "what if I don't have the time?" etc. Those thoughts still plague me, but I'm ignoring them. And I'm taking the next step, one step at a time, to go where I need to go. And hopefully, if I find myself giving up, someone will read this post and set me straight again.

Now to my next step - figure out how to find an illustrator.

Lyrics to the story of the three brothers and pot of porridge

I am very excited to receive an email from a reader, Enitan. She (I'm assuming she) sent me an email with lyrics to the story of the three brothers and the pot of porridge and she says the name of the youngest brother, yeah, the culprit, is Tegbe. The song goes like this:

`To ba se pe emi ni mo je koko arugbo (If I ate the koko yam)
Ko'kun o gbe mi, (Let the ocean take me)
K'Osa ko gba mi, (Let the sea take me)
Ke ma ri Tegbe ko ku o.
Tegbe.`(chorus)

In the version on the website, I interpreted okun as sea. Enitan interpretes it as ocean. I didn't have osa. Enitan interpretes that as "sea: as in Lagos". Could it also mean Lagoon since Lagos is surrounded by those?

I speak Yoruba but I'm no literary expert in the language. It isn't easy translating from one language to another. My feeble attempts on this site has given me a healthy dose of respect for Wole Soyinka's translation of D.O. Fagunwa's Ogboju ode ninu igbo irumale into A Forest of a Thousand Daemons.

Enitan, thanks for stopping by and dropping a note.

Collective amnesia on folktales

There's an African folktale that tells the tale of how all the stories in the world were lost, and then recovered. I can't recall this tale in detail but think one of the Magic Cellar episodes was based on it. Or maybe I read the story somewhere.

Perhaps the story illustrates an actual event - one where the entire (village?) populace forgot their stories or history and needed a concerted effort to recall the lost memories. Perhaps it illustrates a fear that the oral histories can get lost and served to reinforce the importance of passing on the stories. (Too bad it didn't drive the development of some sort of writing.)

Today, there's a collective amnesia around the African folktales I grew up with. I thought it was just me...I almost remember the stories but they're just out of my grasp. I think if I think deeply enough, they will come back. So I throw out the little bits I remember and ask others to fill in the holes. I see eyes light up as they remember the story...they think they remember but then the story is just out of their grasp.

I've observed this often enough that I now expect it. "Oh, I will remember that one!", they say. "Shoot me an email to remind me. I will write it out and send it to you." End of story.

Stories from Alawiye

Phetolo wrote to ask "May u pls send me the origin of the story about how the chimpanzees bottom got swollen and red."


Well, this was one of the stories that I remembered just a small fragment of, but I clearly remember where I knew the story from. It was one of the stories that I learned from Alawiye (by J.F. Odunjo), the textbook that we used for Yoruba when I was in primary school. I can't remember if it was from apa kini, apa keji or apa keta (part 1, part 2 or part 3). But all I could remember from the story was Su dundun which my best effort translated to "Give me sweet feces."


One of the first books I intended to get were the Alawiye series, so I asked my sister in Nigeria to get them for me. She told me that the books she saw did not have "all those stories". I still haven't obtained a copy and I haven't verified that statement.


Someone else eventually refreshed my memory of this story. Thank you Id.


As far as story origin, it's from the Yoruba people of West Africa (that's why it was in a Yoruba textbook, right?)

Alu Jon Jonki Jon

One of the earliest stories I posted is the story about how Dog hid his mother in the sky during a famine. There's a song that goes with that story and I can't remember why I left it out. I've now updated the story to include the song.

Fela Anikulapo Kuti (late Nigerian Afrobeat musician) used it in one of his songs and you can listen to that clip on BBC. The story is narrated on that page, but it is the Tortoise who hides his mother in heaven. Perhaps this is a different version but Fela and I both agree that it was the Dog who hid his mother in heaven. He sings "Aja gbe ti e, o d'orun" (meaning "Dog has taken his mother to the sky.") Oh, don't ask me what "Alu jon jonki jon" means. I have no idea.

Not quite slow and steady

The Aesop story of the Tortoise and the Hare is a very popular one and it teaches us that "Slow and steady wins the race". However, when I was growing up, there was another version that was also popular where Tortoise won by tricking Hare.

I tried to come up with a short phrase/adage/wise words that perhaps explains the moral of this 'win by trickery' version (which I also think predates the Aesop's version). So I've got,

"Never say never"

"It's not over till it's over"

"It's not brawn but brains"

"Cross all your 'T's and dot all your 'I's" (obviously running out at this point)

Mosquito and Ear

I was told the story of why mosquitos buzz in people's ears over a year ago but I didn't want to post it until I read the book that goes by the same title (by Verna Aardema). After all, I didn't want to be accused of plagiarism in case the stories were the same. Well, how could they be the same? I ordered the book and read it and it's a very interesting story but completely different from my mine. Oh well, except for the title.

Just like the multitude of stories about the tortoise's broken back, I wonder if there's a similar multitude about the mosquito and its ferocious habit of buzzing in people's ears. (Perhaps the habit can be logically explained: the mosquito's buzz is only heard when it's near the ears. But this is a folktale site - logic out.)

I forgot to ask the person who told me this story who Ear married after ridiculing Mosquito. If you know, please share.

Sikulu and Harambe

Sikulu the spider and Harambe the hippo are two characters developed by Kunle Oguneye. The first book in the series, Sikulu and Harambe by the Zambezi river: An African version of the Good Samaritan Story should be published in July 2008.





Now, I haven't read the story, but I'm already won over by the cover illustration. I hope it is representative of illustrations throughout the book. One of the reasons I believe I cannot remember many of the folktales I heard growing up is because the stories were not reinforced
with images (pictures or movies). Most of the books on African folktales lacked visual appeal so it is exciting to see that changing.

I wish Kunle Oguneye all the best with his book. I would love to be able to preview a few pages of the book but the "click here to read the book" link did not quite work for me. If you visit the site, check out the video of the author - he explains his inspiration for the characters - and I really like his concept. If the stories are well written, I easily see those characters becoming a hit with children.

Note: In my last post, I referred to a third email that I would address in another post...this is it.

A short note to say I will be back...

It took about 5 months for me to quit feeling guilty about not even trying to post a new story or say something on the blog. Initially, I blamed the site inactivity on various things - laptop crashed and I replaced it with a desktop instead of another laptop, then I moved to a new city, have a new 'busier' job and now a new baby. When SOLOMONSYDELLE said "Haba, update nah!", I was long gone. And I chose not to respond because I thought it was better to be gone than to make up more excuses. I had excuses (perhaps), but maintaining this site is something I continued to think about.

For a while, I checked emails from the website and it was a chore because it became all about deleting spam. So I stopped. And the longer I went without checking, the more I dreaded the spamfest I would encounter if I did. Last Friday, I decided to log in and do some mass deletes, but some emails caught my attention. One from Soyini was very encouraging. Soyini said

I have just discovered your website, and I have read your reasons for not submitting more stories.
I love the ones you posted so far...they remind me of the stories my grandfather use to tell us from his rocking chair on the front porch of his big house down in Americus, Georgia.
Please continue the stories...I read them to children in my youth program.
Some of us are called to do whatever we do...think about it...following your calling, you will not regret it.

Who wouldn't want to continue posting stories after reading that? Thanks Soyini!

To Ezinwoke who wanted to know if he could contribute stories...your stories would be most welcome. Just email me the story and I'll post it to the site. To your second question about reusing stories...the stories are 'public domain' AFAIK. The stories have been retold over and over in different fashions and you can retell in your own words. But if you reuse a story 'as is', then you need to cite the source - allfolktales.com. Note that this only applies to the stories written by me. If it was contributed by another author, their own rules will apply.

There's a third email that I will address in another blog post. If I missed your email in my mass delete frenzy, I apologize. And I thank you for writing.

The tortoise shares his igbako

I posted a new story last night - The tortoise and the igbako. In line with other tortoise stories, the tortoise gets greedy and is subsequently punished. But I feel the punishment is unfair in this case since the tortoise was trying to feed every animal during a famine - an admirable act even if his goal was self-aggrandisement. The water goddess who supplied the magic igbako didn't give a reason why tortoise should keep igbako secret, so the need to feed fellow animals would have trumped obeying the goddess's wish.

In case you're wondering, the igbako is a Yoruba word for a food utensil traditionally carved out from a calabash (there are plastic equivalents now). It's used to serve local dishes such as eba, iyan and amala - they all have a consistency like stiff mashed pototoes.

Working up the will

I've been away from allfolktales.com for 2 months now. And even before that there was a dwindling down of activity. Well, moving did take more energy than I expected but I'm way past that. Already settled into the new job and new environment for some time now...but yet I found it difficult to work up the energy will to post a new story or comment. It wasn't for lack of energy or lack of time, I just did not feel like doing it. And yet I felt so guilty (not sure why). It's like exercising (at least, for me). I start a regimen, maintain the pace and energy for weeks, then miss some days and the frequency will begin to dwindle until there's exercise no more...and I'm left with guilt...until I work up the will to begin again.

I thank everyone who's stopped by to read stories or leave comments (in the blog and through email) and I apologize for responding so late.

Now, I hope this post here will break me out of my writing stupor.