West African Folktales

The World's Greatest Myths and Legends

by Jake Jackson (Editor)

Tricksters and animals play an important role in West African folklore with stories that entertain but serve a moral purpose. Traditions and local tales revel in the antics of these from Nigeria to Benin, from the cunning spider god Anansi to the equally crafty Tortoise, animals teach humans to farm, to love, to survive and thrive, and offer inspiration for moral purpose. This collection gathers these vital animal stories alongside tales of origin, life, death and human folly.

FLAME TREE 451 : From mystery to crime, supernatural to horror and myth, fantasy and science fiction, Flame Tree 451 offers a healthy diet of werewolves and robots, mad scientists, secret worlds, lost civilizations and escapist fantasies. Discover a storehouse of tales, ancient and modern gathered specifically for the reader of the fantastic.

Genres: Mythology, Nonfiction, Research

256 pages, Paperback

Published October 12, 2021

About the author

SF and dark fantasy author but also a writer/creator of practical music books - Beginner's Guide to Reading Music, Guitar Chords, Piano Chords, Songwriter’s Rhyming Dictionary and How to Play Guitar. Other publications include Advanced Guitar Chords, Advanced Piano Chords, Chords for Kids, How to Play the Electric Guitar, Piano & Keyboard Chords, Scales and Modes and Play Flamenco. Also editor of Mythology books 

Released EP Jakesongs on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, LastFM, etc and on CDBaby. Lifelong passion for fantastic worlds of any kind, from movies to fiction, art to music, posters, album and paperback book covers.

Jake Jackson is the artist name for Nick Wells, Publisher of Flame Tree Press / Flame Tree Publishing.

Reviews

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. While I really enjoyed the stories and parables, I felt that more could have been done in terms of creating the book to explain cultural relativism and why each story was important to the people it originated from. I thought the stories themselves were amazing, and I love the idea of Folktales and parables teaching things like why there is rain or rivers, why tortoises have shells, and why humans should share knowledge and act in good faith to others. I really enjoyed the section regarding Anansi, the spider, as I felt it was interesting to see how other cultures view tricksters and trickery (the turtle section was like this as well but had more of a redeeming quality to its personality it seemed). Overall, this was really good, though I did notice some editing mistakes, which also takes my review down a bit. I really loved getting to learn about some of the stories that have remained important to so many people, especially when those stories aren't often highlighted in Eurocentric media.

[E.M. Jeanmougin]

"And even now, whenever a man wishes to tell a story a story for the entertainment of his people, he must acknowledge first of all, that the tale is a great gift, given to him by Anansi, the spider."


I'm not an expert but I've read a lot of these before and I feel like there's probably other collections out there that contain more/better versions/translations of some, particularly the Spider and Tortoise stories. I got this collection from Half-Price books for $2.99. It isn't the best of the "The World's Greatest Myths and Legends" series, but if you like the Trickster archetype and/or aren't familiar with the region's folklore, this is an okay place to start.

[Ollie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a solid compilation, especially for those who are just starting to get into West African folktales (such as myself). The prose is simple and easy to understand. There are a few minor mistakes that could have been fixed in editing, but I honestly didn't mind it.

[Anastasia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Needs editing and proofreading

[Jbondandrews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stiil not sure how many stars to give this book. While I enjoyed the stories, they seemed to be too brief to be as enjoyable as possible.

[Haleigh Villemaire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some stories are lost in translation, but the book was interesting.

[Ticana Zhu · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed this, mostly. But there were repeating stories and could use better copy editing.