Africa
Folk tales and stories from African traditions.
African Folk Tales
Ages 6-8
Tink-Tinkje
The southern African folk tale 'Tink-Tinkje', the Cape form of the worldwide 'election of the king of birds' fable, in which the smallest bird wins the crown by cleverly riding unfelt on the soaring vulture's wing.
African Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The World’s Reward
The World's Reward is the Cape South African form of the Bremen Town Musicians: seven cast-off old animals join forces, frighten a band of robbers out of their house, and keep it for themselves.
African Folk Tales
Ages 6-8
The Tiger, The Ram, And The Jackal
A Panchatantra tale where a clever jackal's lies to tiger and ram destroy his own plans.
African Folk Tales
Ages 6-8
The White Man And Snake
The Khoikhoi fable of a man who frees a snake pinned under a stone, only for the snake to turn on him - until the clever Jackal restores her to the trap by asking her to prove her story. A Cape retelling of tale type ATU 155.
African Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Story Of Hare
The Story of Hare is a Xhosa folktale from South Africa. Five careless watchmen die guarding the animals' fat from the monstrous inkalimeva, until the clever hare alone outwits the beast by its own trick - then nearly undoes himself through greed.
African Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Monkey’s Fiddle
A scholarly retelling of the southern African folk tale "The Monkey's Fiddle", in which a poor monkey, falsely condemned for theft by a corrupt animal court, escapes the gallows by playing a charmed fiddle that forces the whole court to dance.
African Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Story Of A Dam
The Story of a Dam is a Khoikhoi folk tale of southern Africa in which veld animals dig a dam against drought, the idle Jackal fouls it and dupes its guard, is caught by a tar-coated Tortoise, and then escapes his sentence by abandoning Lion under a rock. It is the southern African form of the famous tar-baby tale.
African Folk Tales
Ages 6-8
The Lost Message
A southern African folk tale: the many kinds of ants fail to agree at their council, and the saving message of unity, entrusted to the slow Beetle, never arrives.
African Folk Tales
Ages 6-8
The Lioness And The Ostrich
The Lioness and the Ostrich is a Khoikhoi folk tale of southern Africa from Bleek's Reynard the Fox in South Africa (1864) and Honey's South-African Folk-Tales (1910). A lioness accepts an ostrich as her equal, then lets her cubs' flattering scorn break that bond - and dies of it.
African Folk Tales
Ages 6-8
The Lion, The Jackal, And The Man
The Khoikhoi folk tale of a boastful lion whom a clever jackal humbles by leading him to meet a man — and the man, armed with dogs, fire and steel, proves the strongest creature of all.
African Folk Tales
Ages 6-8
The Judgment Of Baboon
A mouse tears the tailor's cloak, and when every creature blames the next, Baboon the judge turns the chain of excuses into a chain of punishment - a Khoikhoi tale from Namaqualand explaining why the cat hunts the mouse and the baboon walks on all fours.
African Folk Tales
All Ages
The Lion And Jackal
A Khoikhoi trickster tale of the Cape: Lion and Jackal hunt on shares, but Jackal cheats Lion's family of the winter meat and, cornered at last on a krantz, destroys the great beast with a red-hot stone disguised as a ball of fat.