East African Folktales

The World's Greatest Myths and Legends

by Jake Jackson (Editor)

From the rift valley come stories of gods, tricksters, cattle and ogres from the many peoples of East Africa.

Traditional stories bring a deeper understanding of the movement of peoples across East Africa. Common roots and differences between ancient peoples create a lively portrait with their fragile, powerful gods. The modern nations of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and more inherit the folk and mythic tales of the rift valley region. Here you'll find stories of ogres and tricksters, riddles and poems, figures such as the first man (Gikuyu) and woman (Mumbi), and great heroes of history such as Liongo. This new collection is created for the modern reader.

FLAME TREE 451 : From myth to mystery, the supernatural to horror, fantasy and science fiction, Flame Tree 451 offers a healthy diet of werewolves and mechanical men, blood-lusty vampires, dastardly villains, mad scientists, secret worlds, lost civilizations and escapist fantasies. Discover a storehouse of tales gathered specifically for the reader of the fantastic.

Genres: Mythology

256 pages, Paperback

Published July 26, 2022

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

[Jos · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was just one folk tale after another and without much preamble before each story to help me connect with the culture.

I also question the way the stories were grouped. Themes were broken down on the most basic level. Folk tales under the God or Animal categories could have one small reference to an animal or god and but mostly be about the humans in the story. Personally, I would have preferred tales that were organized using a timeline, tales that were possibly commonly told through certain mediums, or even tales organised by more specific themes (ego, pride, courage, love, etc.)

One star overall because what I hoped this book would do: allow me to connect with East African culture through common tales, did not happen. Instead, it had the opposite effect, making me feel like these stories were odd or a little silly without any context. When collecting a group of people's stories, you have to be much more mindful.

[Stephen Dages · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was very sub-average. I don’t feel that the folktales were poor, rather the organization of the book and the translation felt off as well. Also, many of these “folktales” seemed like relatively recent stories from post-colonial times, which was really confusing. I don’t think the editor spent the time to really get to know the people of east Africa and their true historical storytelling. It felt more of an attempt to simply cross this region off his list when making his book series.
I would like to read something similar, written from the voice of East Africans, with annotations and reflections/explanations to help the reader better understand both context and culture.

[Karl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of east African folk tales has some very interesting stories, many commenting on Human foibles and often offering advice on avoiding trouble. Many of the stories have animal characters, again reflecting positive or negative kinds of Human behavior. I found it interesting how in many of the stories, Hare is a trickster, manipulating animals or people into foolish or fatal situations, though sometimes Hares get their comeuppance. Some of the stories had a flavor strongly reminiscent of The 1001 Nights, which makes sense, given the centuries-long contacts between the east African coast and the Arab lands. Some commentary on the background of individual stories, or on recurring themes in the stories, would have been nice. Unfortunately, there is a degree of repetition among the stories, with almost identical tales appearing more than once. I also spotted a typographic error or two, as well. Finally, there are a lot of words in Swahili and other languages, and a glossary of terms and names would have been very helpful.