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A review by doriastories
African Folktales by Roger D. Abrahams
3.0
The tales are varied and interesting, but they are here organized and presented (and edited) with an eye towards western taste. The book as a whole has a distinctly colonial structure and attitude; everything is centered in terms of its value and potential appeal to non-Africans. I have serious reservations about the authenticity of the presentation and translation of the stories, most of which are excerpted from early twentieth century European and American anthropological and folkloric collections, which represent a distinct arm of the colonial impact upon Africa. I also found it difficult to connect individual stories in the collection with their listed sources in the back, due to the book’s convoluted and imprecise citation system. Anyone who wants to learn more about specific tales would do well to research them by way of their individual cultural context, alongside other tales from that same culture.
By pulling stories from all over the continent of Africa and rearranging them according to western notions of preferred narrative types, we as readers lose the stories’ deeper roots and authentic, legitimate cultural meaning. Ultimately, searching African folklore collections for an equivalent to Cinderella or Jack in the Beanstalk is a rather pointless task, despite its trendiness in some circles. We could instead explore how Kikuyu (or Fipa, or Bantu) narratives illustrate the unique values, goals and gifts of the people who created them, reflecting their own cultural values and socio-political spheres of interest. We might discover that European preoccupations are not as universal as was once assumed.
By pulling stories from all over the continent of Africa and rearranging them according to western notions of preferred narrative types, we as readers lose the stories’ deeper roots and authentic, legitimate cultural meaning. Ultimately, searching African folklore collections for an equivalent to Cinderella or Jack in the Beanstalk is a rather pointless task, despite its trendiness in some circles. We could instead explore how Kikuyu (or Fipa, or Bantu) narratives illustrate the unique values, goals and gifts of the people who created them, reflecting their own cultural values and socio-political spheres of interest. We might discover that European preoccupations are not as universal as was once assumed.