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Collection of West African folktales drawn from prose narratives, proverbs, riddles, and songs.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

This anthology includes eight traditional tales from all over Africa. Sumptuous hand-sewn collage artwork decorated with African beads adorns these unforgettable tales of bravery, wisdom, wit and heroic deeds

Folktales are timeless and, although a product of a particular culture, they have universal relevance because they give insight into the human condition. In Folktales from Africa, award-winning South African author Dianne Stewart has retold stories from the African continent.

A spider, frogs, a tortoise, and a magic ox are among the characters in a collection of five traditional tales from Africa.

How to Read a Folktale offers the first English translation of Ibonia, a spellbinding tale of old Madagascar. Ibonia is a folktale on epic scale. Much of its plot sounds familiar: a powerful royal hero attempts to rescue his betrothed from an evil adversary and, after a series of tests and duels, he and his lover are joyfully united with a marriage that affirms the royal lineage. These fairytale elements link Ibonia with European folktales, but the tale is still very much a product of Madagascar. It contains African-style praise poetry for the hero; it presents Indonesian-style riddles and poems; and it inflates the form of folktale into epic proportions. Recorded when the Malagasy people were experiencing European contact for the first time, Ibonia proclaims the power of the ancestors against the foreigner. Through Ibonia, Lee Haring expertly helps readers to understand the very nature of folktales. His definitive translation, originally published in 1994, has now been fully revised to emphasize its poetic qualities, while his new introduction and detailed notes give insight into the fascinating imagination and symbols of the Malagasy. Haring’s research connects this exotic narrative with fundamental questions not only of anthropology but also of literary criticism.