Fiabe Africane

by Paul Radin, Italo Calvino (Preface), Adriana Motti (Translator)

Prefazione di Italo Calvino. Racconti popolari dell'Africa indigena, che comprende il Senegal, la Guinea portoghese e francese, la Sierra Leone, la Costa d'Avorio e la Costa d'oro, fino al Congo centrale.

Genres: Mythology, Africa, Fiction, Short Stories

327 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

He was an American cultural anthropologist and folklorist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Radin

Reviews

[Recensioni in tre parole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interessante. Affascinante. Mitologico.

[Joseph Carrabis · Rating 2 out of 5]

First, few of these tales are direct from sources. Most are from secondary or later sources and many of them show this. It's a challenge for me to accept a folktale involving rifles and handguns unless it's from the American West.
Stripping out the cultural contagion takes effort, although it's easy to figure out which tales are compromised from their original forms.
A greater challenge is deciding which tales have had their original meanings so mangled as to lose their mythic significance. Some are clearly mythic and you can get a hint of their original meaning, and even so I wondered how much of the original meaning had been westernized and neutered.

[Francis Manzano · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is about many different old folktales told in Africa. The stories have many different vibes to them, some are sad, twisted or joyous. All the stories tie in to how the people of Africa live their lives. I gave the book all 5 stars because the book was completely entertaining and great to read. "The eldest son came back and killed the younger brother, then took his wife." (Radin 87) the book has very little comedy with in the book but its worth the read. i would recommend this story to those that can't read the same story for too long, because there is a new story every few pages. Its a fast paced book, with many entertaining stories that will keep you reeled into the story.

[Lisa Powell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good survey, appreciate different traditions being labeled clearly, good organization.

[Theresa Lange · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very small print but real interesting

[Andy Armitage · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating collection of folk tales and myths from missionaries and anthropolgists compiled from various African tribes south of the Sahara (Ashanti, Hottentot, Zulu, Bushmen, and so on). The stories are devided into four sections: Creation Myths, the Animal and his World, The Realm of Man, and Man and his Fate.

The stories give a peek into the African psyche and provide an understanding of the way the Africans made sense of their world and its inhabitants and explained their social contracts and moral obligations.

Many of these stories are strange indeed. They resonate in a darker, dustier, bloodier key than the Greek Myths. Paul Radin puts the disorganised manner of the stories down to the fact that the religious/cultural/political state of Africa was chaotic because of colonisation and internal disputes at the time the stories were collected. Many of the stories depict a brutal unforgiving world in which man must use all his ingenuity in order to obtain the next meal. Other sories are hilariously glib; one etiological myth, 'Why There are Cracks in the Tortoise's Shell' had me in tears of laughter.

Worth mentioning that poet Sylvia Plath was reading this book prior to writing Ariel and those interest will find the origin here of some of the images and ideas in her poems. One of the stories here, for example, is called 'The City Where Men are Mended'.

[Cori Thomas]

I found this book on my sister's book shelf I thought I was intersting that she had it. I love folktales and stories. I've even heard some of these before.