African Tales: Folklore of the Central African Republic

by Rodney Wimer (Illustrator), Polly Strong (Translator)

A collection of twelve stories dealing with the folkore and fables of this African region

Genres: Short Stories, Central African Republic, Fiction, Africa, 20th Century

95 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Tinea · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh man, this is one of those classic super-offensive missionary-style "I first came to Africa 26 years ago. I came to give but found I was given to" deals. You know those books! Someone writes down literal word-for-word translations of a very specific storyteller's interpretation of some very specifically localized folk tales, and then generalizes in the introduction how "the Africans" (#AfricaIsACountry) think, feel, and understand the world. The translation are particularly bad in this volume: word-for-word rough awkward sentences that make it sound like the storytellers speak in stilted halting language like an Indian in a US Western, with abrupt ending summations including morals out of left field, that do not come out in the stories themselves. This leads me to be even more skeptical of the translations-- what parts of the stories are they missing?

So I read it, and there were some cute tales involving trickery and cool animals and funny old women. There were some themes: living day-to-day and not planning for the future cuz it's so damn unpredictable; humility; the need for community acceptance.

The author's conclusion sums up why we read folktales, and it's why I picked up this book: to understand a culture through the themes and lessons that have been institutionalized in stories taught to children over generations. The problem is the author's approach, her decision to spell out who Central Africans are based on these stories. The outro lists a lot of sweeping conclusions about Central African society, values, and emotions. OK, cool, useful. Except I have no idea if these tales are good translations of Banda stories, and no idea if Banda stories are representative of folklore in the Central African Republic & Central African region, since the intro and conclusions were so... overgeneralizing and weakly supported.

Blahhh, once again this whole genre of friendly colonial authority-by-presence raises it's ugly head and the result is a book that may be useful or more likely is harmful by creating the "evidence" used to support stereotypes.

[Alana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Why Monkeys Live in Trees and Other Stories from Benin immediately before this, so the comparison in the stories and the different focus of the compilers was interesting. "Monkeys" focused more on "this is why things are this way" kind of stories, while African Tales was a little of that, but mostly tales of the trickster figure Tere.

It's culturally very interesting to see how those tales coincide with folk tales in other parts of the world, and of course, how they differ. I love that storytelling exists in all cultures, whether or not there is a written language. The explanations regarding African storytelling at the end were illuminating in this regard, as well.

[Michele Benson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Central African Republic. I am enjoying the African folktales translated into English. The tales differ from ones we hear from Europe or Asia. Greediness and selfishness, especially with food are evils that are appropriately dealt with. Hunger is a very real thing. Work is praised. The main character for the tales is a man named Tere, who seems to be half human and half god. He had adventures that explain origins, value family and teach the importance of keeping promises.

[Ciara]

(Central African Republic)

[Nicole Kroger Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

#readtheworld Central African Republic

[Lindsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was very interesting. I enjoyed the stories themselves but found it hard to read at times. The main problem I had was sentence structure and how it seemed like a direct/literal translation, with little thought to the meaning of the words themselves. There was a lack of sentence variation, everything was extremely matter of fact. It was so matter of fact that I had to look at the end of the story sometimes to see what the moral/lesson was supposed to teach me. That being said I did enjoy this book but am left wanting something more substantial to give me a glimpse into the culture and beliefs.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a collection of traditional stories that attempt to explain why the world is the way it is, especially why certain animals don't like each other. The main "moral" I found is that your actions are always remembered, and that relationships are based on histories of how people have treated each other. Some of them were, however, very confusing - definitely a different way of seeing the world!

[Szimonetta Csóka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the world: Central African Republic

This isn't a very popular book and I can totally understand it. However, for me it was quite enjoyable. It gave me what I was expecting - african tales. True, it's hard to read it sometimes, as the authors used direct translation, but I think this makes it authentic.

[Leslie (updates on SG) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know how unique these tales are to the Central African Republic, but I enjoyed this collection of stories of Tere the Trickster and origins of adversarial relationships between animals. The moral at the end of each tale reminds me of Aesop's Fables. My favorite story is "Ten Orphans."

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

good stories over all