There Was a Certain Man: Spoken Art of the Fipa (Oxford Library of African Literature)

by Roy Willis (Editor)

English (translation)

150 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[Doria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve fallen in love with the acerbic wit and intelligent sensibility of these Fipa stories. Not so much with the anthropologist who mediates and translates the material, but he did about as well as expected for a mid-20th century Westerner. The stories themselves are the heart of the book, and they are absolute gold. They consist primarily of folktales, stories about ordinary people and/or anthropomorphized animals, interacting with each other and with the world around them. The narratives describe situations that are highly relatable, told clearly and simply, with the occasional clarifying note as to context, including just enough details to leave room for the reader’s imagination to flourish.

The book includes plenty of turgid anthropological-linguistic introductory material and indices to satisfy an armchair ethnologist. Story-lovers can skim those parts to get to the good stuff - the stories! A wonderful bonus is a collection of Fipa proverbs appended after the stories, including clever nuggets such as this: “You can only laugh with your own teeth.”