Bibliographical Note
This Dover edition, first published in 2003, is an unabridged republication of the text and illustrations from West African Folk Tales, Books One and Two (1958), and More West African Folk Tales, Books One and Two (1963). Newly reset in one volume, the original four books were compiled by Hugh Vernon-Jackson and first published in London by The University of London Press, Ltd. The separate prefaces from each of the four books have been abridged and combined for the present edition.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
West African folk tales / [compiled by] Hugh Vernon-Jackson ; illustrated by
Patricia Wright.
p. cm.
“Unabridged republication of the text and illustrations from West African Folk
Tales, Books One and Two (1958), and More West African Folk Tales, Books
One and Two (1963)”—T.p. verso.
Summary: Presents twenty-one traditional tales from West Africa, including
“The Greedy but Cunning Tortoise,” “The Boy in the Drum,” and “The Magic
Cooking Pot.”
9780486149813
1. Tales—Africa, West. 2. Tales—Nigeria. [1. Folklore—Africa, West.]
I. Title: West African folktales. II. Vernon-Jackson, Hugh. III. Wright, Patricia,
ill. IV. More West African folk tales.
PZ8.1.W4875 2003
398.2’0966—dc21
2002041722
Manufactured in the United States of America
Dover Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y. 11501
Preface
MANY FOLK TALES from many different parts of the world express similar ideas and sometimes have much the same narrative. Is this yet another example of a universal brotherhood of man, of peoples? African stories are no exception to this; nor are those from Nigeria, which make up this collection.
Some of these stories might in one way or another be familiar to the reader. Part of the pleasure of hearing or reading folk stories is the sense of reminiscence; and also the expectation of what events one feels almost sure are going to happen.
Most of these folk tales were collected from school children in West Africa. They are stories the children themselves liked to tell. The stories are the adventures of men, women, and children as well as those of lions, monkeys, tortoises, and birds. As in many folk tales, there are lessons to be learnt. It appears that wrongdoing does not really succeed, while doing right will triumph in the end.
I am indebted to the many young African men and women who helped in the telling and in the collection of these stories which are from many tribes and many places and are meant to be read for enjoyment.
Although the stories were collected from people of Nigeria’s Northern, Eastern, and Western Regions, they should also be of interest in Ghana and other countries, for folk tales are world-wide, and there have been folk tales among all of us ever since the world began.
HUGH VERNON-JACKSON
Table of Contents
Title Page
Bibliographical Note
Copyright Page
Preface
The Story of a Hunter and his Antelope Wife
The Tortoise and the Leopard
An Elephant, a Bush Dog, and the Villagers
The Story of a Farmer and Four Hyenas
The Greedy but Cunning Tortoise
The One-legged Man and the Tortoise
A She-goat and her Children
How the Hyena’s Fur became Striped
The Boy in the Drum
Adamu’s Mountain
The Man with Seven Dogs
The Story of Muhammadu
A Hunter, when the World began
The Son with a Big Head
Koba, the Hunter who stopped Hunting
A Rich Man and his Goat
The Boy who had to choose his Father
A Boastful Man who was not Brave
The Story of Ja’afaru and his Mother’s Sons
The Story of Mullum the Soldier
The Story of a Princess and Two Princes
The Marriage of the Hunter’s Sister
How the Cat destroyed the Rats
A Good Fortune in Camels
The Fisherman and the Ring
The Magic Crocodile
The Contest between Fire and Rain
The Wise Old Man and the Ferocious Leopard
A Father’s Warning
The Lion is not the King of Men
The Hare and the Crownbird
The Forgiving Wife
The Medicine for Getting a Son
The Present is the Most Important Time
Wiser than a King
The Lion, the Monkey and the Clever Bird
The Rivalry for the Lizard King’s Daughters
The Superiority of a Man Twenty-five Years Old
The Magic Cooking Pot
The Tortoise is not as clever as he sometimes thinks
The Greedy Hare
The Tortoise and his Broken Shell
The Cricket and the Toad
The Pig’s search for a Grinding Stone
The Poor Man who became King
Another Cause of Enmity between the Cat and the Rat
The Singing Bird and the Dancing Farmer
The Story of a Hunter and his Antelope Wife
Once upon a time there lived a hunter. He knew much about the ways of animals, but not enough to keep his antelope wife.
One day when he was out hunting in the forest he came to a pool where animals used to come to drink. The hunter hid himself, and while he was watching, a herd of antelope appeared. He prepared his bow and his arrows, but the antelopes did not bend their heads down to drink. Instead, they took off their skins and changed their shapes to become like human beings. They dressed themselves in fine clothes, and the hunter heard them say to each other that they were going to the nearby market.
After they had gone, the hunter went to where they had hung their skins.
“I shall take one of these skins,” said the hunter to himself, “and then I shall wait to see these strange antelopes when they come back.”
The hunter chose the best skin, and then climbed into a tall tree overlooking the pool.
When evening came and the sun was setting, the creatures returned. They took their skins, put them on over their human forms, and became antelopes again. But one of them, who was in the shape of a young and beautiful woman, could not find her skin.
The other antelopes helped her look for her skin. But it was nowhere to be found because the hunter had taken it. Finally, the antelopes went on their way, leaving behind the one who could not find her skin.
The antelope woman began to cry, and the hunter, seeing that all the other antelopes had gone, came down from the tree in which he had been hiding.
“Why are you crying, young woman?” the hunter asked.
At first the antelope woman would not tell him.
“You can trust me to keep your secrets,” the hunter promised her.
At last the antelope woman admitted that she had lost her skin which would have made her an antelope again.
“I now have no home and do not know what to do,” she cried.
“You must marry me,” said the hunter, and he told her about his family and that she would be welcome in his compound.
“Your other wife will learn my secrets from you,” said the antelope woman.
The hunter assured her that his other wife would never be told about her secrets. Finally, the antelope woman agreed to marry the hunter. He then admitted that it was he who had taken her skin, but she said she would still marry him. Thus she followed him along the paths of the forest back
to his compound.
“Where does your new wife come from?” the hunter’s first wife asked, but the hunter never told her the truth. Sometimes he said she was the daughter of another hunter; sometimes he said she came from a distant village on the other side of the forest.
The hunter and his new wife lived happily together for some years, and they had three children. However, the hunter’s first wife was always curious about the wife who had been brought out from the forest.
“Where is your father’s home?” she asked the antelope woman many times.
“Far away,” the antelope woman told her, but never said anything more.
One day, the hunter’s first wife made some very excellent palm wine from the juices of a palm tree which a man had sold to her. It was such good-tasting palm wine that the hunter drank too much of it. The first wife saw her chance.
“Tell me, husband,” she asked, “tell me where your second wife really comes from.”
The hunter was not in control of his senses. After a little more urging he told all the secrets of his antelope wife.
The next day the two wives quarrelled. They quarrelled about how much rice and soup made of meat should be given to the antelope woman’s three children and how much to the first wife’s children who were bigger and older. The first wife became very angry.
“Do not be so proud,” she cried, “you are only an antelope and your skin is hanging from the roof in our husband’s room.”
The antelope woman, seeing that her secret had been discovered, decided to return immediately to the forest. Quickly, she went to her husband’s room and took down the skin from where it had been hanging. She soaked the skin in a pot of water and measured it to the size of her body; she soaked it and pulled it until it fitted her once again and she changed herself back to the shape of an antelope. Meanwhile, her husband and her three children were away, working on their ground-nut farm.
Running with speed, the antelope woman left the compound and bounded along the path through the high grasses which lead to the ground-nut farm.
When she came to the farm, she beat her three children with her tail, and instantly they changed into handsome young antelopes.
“Farewell!” she cried to her husband, “you have been good to me and to my children, but now your first wife knows my secret.”
“Stay, stay,” the husband begged.
“We must go for ever!” the antelope woman cried, and with her children she ran down the path and disappeared into the forest.
The husband returned, very angrily, to his compound and drove his first wife away from his house.
The Tortoise and the Leopard
Once upon a time there was a tortoise who lived in a forest. She was a large, fat tortoise with a green and brown shell on her back, and over her stomach she wore a yellow shell.
One day she was going for a walk in the dark, shady forest where she lived. She came to the edge of the forest beside a river, and in the sand beside the river she found some big eggs. She recognized them as being the eggs of a crocodile.
Now the tortoise was very fond of eating good food, and she knew that crocodile eggs have a delicious flavour. She picked up the eggs and hurried with them to the compound of a family which lived near the river.
After the tortoise had greeted the family and the family had greeted the tortoise, she said, “Please, may I enter your compound, for I have something to tell you?”
“Certainly,” replied the chief man of the compound, and he and his family allowed the tortoise to enter.
“If you let me use a cooking pot,” said the tortoise, “and some firewood, some oil, and some pepper, and if you let me use three big stones to support the cooking pot over the fire, I will make a magic cake for you with the eggs which I am carrying. After you have eaten the magic cake you will always have good luck.”
The chief of the compound and his family agreed to what the tortoise suggested. They brought a cooking pot, firewood, oil, pepper, and three big stones to support the cooking pot over the fire. The tortoise asked them to put everything in the room where the family stored its corn. When everything was made ready, the tortoise thanked the family, entered the room and shut and bolted the door.
All day the tortoise cooked the crocodile eggs. She mixed them with the oil and the pepper and the corn which was stored in the room, and she made a very large cake.
When night came and the family were sleeping, the tortoise put the cake in a bag, left the compound very quietly and then ran quickly into the forest.
The next morning the people in the compound woke up. They looked for the tortoise but they could not find her. They knew they had been tricked.
Meanwhile, the tortoise was going deep into the forest carrying the bag with the cake inside it. The day became very dark, for there were many clouds in the sky. The tortoise heard thunder; then she felt rain. The day became darker and darker, the rain became heavier and heavier. The tortoise was beaten by the rain, but she did not dare return to the compound where she had cooked her cake, so she went on and on, hoping to find shelter. At last she came to the top of a little hill where, through the clearing in the trees, she could see smoke. The tortoise knew that the smoke came from a house and that where there was a house there was shelter. She walked and walked while the rain became stronger and stronger. At last she reached the house.
“Greetings, friend,” the tortoise called at the doorway, “please will you let me in, for I am tired and wet from the rain?”
It was a leopard that came to the door.
“Greetings,” said the leopard. “Come in.”
Inside the house the tortoise found a warm place near the fire. She took her bag with the cake in it, and hung it up on a bamboo pole inside the house. As night had come by that time, the tortoise said good night to the leopard and went to sleep beside the fire.
The next morning when the tortoise woke up she saw that her bag was empty and that the cake had disappeared. It had been eaten by the leopard. The tortoise feared the leopard, so she did not say anything about the cake. Instead, she said, “I thank you, leopard, for giving me shelter. Now, if you will do what I say, I will make a magic powder for you. The magic powder will make you successful whenever you go out hunting.”
The foolish leopard was very pleased and he agreed to do what the tortoise said.
The tortoise said that he should go out into the forest and bring forked sticks, four of them, each about six feet high. This the leopard did. The tortoise then said that the leopard should bring two strong poles to be tied on the tops of the forked sticks. The leopard went into the forest again and brought back the poles, tied them to the forked sticks, and drove one end of each forked stick firmly into the ground.
Then he allowed the tortoise to tie him to the poles and sticks.
“When will you untie me?” asked the leopard.
“Never,” replied the tortoise. “You ate my cake without asking my permission to eat it. Therefore I shall not untie you. I shall leave you to your fate.”
The tortoise then ran off and disappeared in the thick forest.
After several hours some monkeys passed the leopard.
“Monkeys,” said the leopard, “please untie me.”
“Not us,” replied the monkeys, “we are too frightened of you.”
The monkeys went on their way. The leopard became very hungry. After several more hours an old mother monkey passed the leopard.
“Oh, Monkey,” cried the leopard, “please untie me. I have been here for a long time.”
The old mother monkey came back.
“Very well,” she said to the leopard, “although I fear you, I will untie you.”
The monkey freed the leopard, but she was not free from him. The leopard jumped on her and ate her up. After that, with a roar of rage, he ran into the forest to look for the tortoise.
The leopard went through the forest, but he could not find the tortoise. The leopard went beside the forest near the river, b
ut still he could not find the tortoise. For ever afterwards the leopard searched beside the forest, and whenever one sees a leopard beside a forest, one knows he is looking for a tortoise.
An Elephant, a Bush Dog, and the Villagers
Once near a village there lived a large and angry elephant, who frightened everyone. The villagers had tried but they had not been able to kill the elephant or drive him away. In fact, they were very often too frightened to leave their houses in case the elephant tried to kill them.
The village head held a meeting in the entrance hall of his compound.
“He who destroys this elephant,” he announced, “will be given a large reward worth many pounds.”
Encouraged by the thought of a large reward, the best hunters in the village dared to go out and shoot at the elephant with their bows and arrows. All failed.
At last a wild dog from the bush thought he would try for the reward. He went to the village head and said that he would kill the elephant.
“If you are successful,” the village head told him, “I will give you good food and a mattress, and let you live in my comfortable house instead of living in the bush. You shall also receive the large reward worth many pounds.”
The wild bush dog said that the villagers would have to clear a stretch of ground twenty miles long and a quarter of a mile wide and that it must be straight. The village head arranged for the work to be done when the elephant was not near the village.
When it had been done, the wild bush dog went to the elephant.
“I should like to have a running race with you,” the wild bush dog said to him.
“What do you mean by that?” the elephant asked.
“I should like to prove,” the wild bush dog replied, “that I am able to run faster than you.”
“Nonsense!” said the elephant.
“Prove it!” said the wild bush dog.
The elephant and the wild bush dog then arranged that they would have a race on the following day.
The wild bush dog left the elephant and went to the other wild bush dogs to ask for their help.
West African Folk Tales Page 1
