LibriVox: African Folktales

African folktales are amazing, and I am excited to share them with you here! Last year, I started making audio recordings of the stories at LibriVox. When I began, there were around 150 folktales you could listen to; now there are over 400 stories, and I have cataloged literally thousands more African folktales in the public domain that I want to record, story by story by story. (If you would like to start recording for LibriVox, just visit their website to learn more; it's a very supportive and encouraging community!)

Below this paragraph, you will see an African folktale displayed at random, and you can also see a story displayed at random in the blog sidebar. Just click the "play" button to listen, and you can also scroll down in the frame to see all the stories in that book. You can reload the page to see another story at random, and there's a complete listing of the audio stories below the frame, all free to listen to and to read online. Happy listening/reading!

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Story List:

1. A Chain of Circumstances
2. A Family Quarrel
3. A Jackal And A Wolf
4. A Journey for Salt
5. A Lesson in Evolution
6. A Man and His Mother-in-law
7. A Plea for Mercy
8. A Quarrel about Seniority
9. A Question as to Age
10. A Question of Right of Inheritance
11. A Snake's Skin Looks like a Snake
12. A Story of the Great Famine
13. A Test of Friendship
14. A Trick for Vengeance
15. A Tug-of-War
16. Abundance
17. Adventures of a Jackal
18. Adventures of the Jackal's Eldest Son
19. Adventures of the Younger Son of Jackal
20. Adzanumee and Her Mother
21. Agenda: Rat's Play on a Name
22. Ali of the Crooked Arm
23. All for the Skin of a Lion
24. An Oath: With a Mental Reservation
25. Anansi and Nothing
26. Anansi and the Blind Fisherman
27. Ants Carrying Bundles as Big as Themselves
28. Baboon-Skins
29. Bata the Duck
30. Binti Ali the Clever
31. Borrowed Clothes
32. Candor
33. Chief Kekong's Daughter 'Ndere who Married a Python
34. Cloud-Eating.
35. Cock And Jackal.
36. Concerning the Human Sacrifices
37. Concerning the Ju-Ju against Elephantiasis
38. Concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism
39. Crocodile
40. Crocodile's Treason
41. Death Begins by Some One Person
42. Do Not Impose on the Weak
43. Do Not Trust your Friend
44. Dog and His False Friend Leopard
45. Dog and his Human Speech (version 1)
46. Dog and his Human Speech (version 2)
47. Elephant And Tortoise / Giraffe and Tortoise.
48. Essido and his Evil Companions
49. Farmer Mybrow and the Fairies
50. Feeding the Hungry
51. Goat's Tournament
52. Goso, the Teacher
53. Haamdaanee
54. Honourable Minu
55. Horse Cursed By Sun.
56. Hottentots And Bushmen.
57. How 'Nyambi Punished Chief Oga
58. How a Cruel Inkum Chief Was Poisoned by His Slaves
59. How a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons but Failed
60. How a Hunter Obtained Money from his Friends
61. How Agbor Adam Broke the Hunting Law of Okuni
62. How an Inkum Boy Was Drowned by His Companions
63. How an Inkum Woman Abandoned One of Her Twins in the Forest
64. How Beasts and Serpents Came into the World
65. How Chief Alankor and All His Family Were Killed by a Big Frog
66. How Elili of Inkum Died, and Was Brought Back to Life Again
67. How Essama Stole Her Father's Goat in the Fatting-House
68. How Ewa Abagi, an Inkum Woman, Was Drowned in the Cross River
69. How Ibanang Okpong and Her Mother Were Swallowed by a Man-Eating Drum
70. How Isuro the Rabbit Tricked Gudu
71. How Jakhals Fed Oom Leeuw
72. How Mafani Earned His Bride
73. How Mushrooms First Grew
74. How Oghabi Poisoned His Friend Okpa
75. How the Antelope's Wife Came to Her Death
76. How the Elephant Made a Fool of Himself
77. How the Frog Beat the Bush Buck in a Race
78. How the Grey Parrots Got Their Red Tails
79. How the Hare Traded With a Bag of Corn
80. How the Hen and the Duck Became Friends
81. How the Jackal got his Stripe
82. How the Monkey Saved the Antelope from Death
83. How the River Came into Existence
84. How the Sparrow and the Hen Became Friends
85. How the Tortoise Got Its Shell
86. How the Turtle Outwitted the Pig
87. How Tortoise Overcame Elephant and Hippopotamus
88. How Two Bendega Young Men Changes Their Skins
89. How Two Friends Fell Out: The Spider and the Grasshopper
90. How We Got the Name 'Spider Tales'
91. How Wisdom Became the Property of the Human Race
92. Iguana's Forked Tongue
93. Is the Bat a Bird or a Beast?
94. Ituen and the King's Wife
95. Jackal And Monkey
96. Jackal, Dove, And Heron.
97. Jackal's Bride.
98. Jan the Animal Judge
99. Kasanke the Little Red Bird
100. Kibaraka and the Bird
101. King Chameleon and the Animals
102. Kitangatanga of the Sea
103. Kwofi and the Gods
104. Leopard of the Fine Skin
105. Leopard's Hunting Companions
106. Leopard's Hunting-Camp
107. Leopard's Marriage Journey
108. Lila and Fila
109. Lion And Baboon.
110. Lion And Jackal
111. Lion Who Thought Him Self Wiser Than His Mother.
112. Lion Who Took A Woman's Shape.
113. Lion's Defeat.
114. Lion's Illness.
115. Lion's Share.
116. Maku Mawu and Maku Fia
117. Mkaaah Jeechonee, the Boy Hunter
118. Mohammed With the Magic Finger
119. Morning Sunrise
120. Motikatika
121. Musoke the Moon-boy
122. Njiwo Died of Sleep
123. No One Can Live on Beauty Alone
124. Not My Fault!
125. Nunda the Slayer
126. Nunda, Eater of People
127. Nuts are Eaten Because of Angangwe
128. Nya-nya Bulembu; or, the Moss-green Princess
129. Of Chief Amaza, His Wife Achi, and the Tortoise
130. Of the Fat Woman who Melted Away
131. Of the Pretty Girl and the Seven Jealous Women
132. Of the Pretty Stranger who Killed the King
133. Ohia and the Thieving Deer
134. One Ought Not to Despise the Little Things
135. Origin of the Elephant
136. Origin of the Ivory Trade (version 1)
137. Origin of the Ivory Trade (version 2)
138. Paka the Cat
139. Parrot Standing on One Leg
140. Pemba Muhori
141. Prudence and Indolence
142. Punished Indifference
143. Quarcoo Bah-Boni
144. Sad Fate of Three Little Flies
145. Samba the Coward
146. Saved by his Tail
147. Segu
148. Setuli; or, the King of the Birds
149. Shani and Tabak
150. Soliloquy of Old Age in a Banana Garden
151. Story Of Lion And Little Jackal
152. Swine Talking
153. Tasks Done for a Wife
154. Tests of Death (version 1)
155. Tests of Death (version 2)
156. The 'Nsasak Bird and the Odudu Bird
157. The Absent-minded Bridegroom
158. The Affair of the Hippopotamus and the Tortoise
159. The Alligator and the Moor Hen
160. The Animals’ Dam
161. The Ant and the Cricket
162. The Ape, the Snake, and the Lion
163. The Beauty and the Beast
164. The Buffalo Maiden
165. The Cannibals
166. The Cat and the Hen
167. The Cat, the Rat, and the Fox
168. The Cat's Tail
169. The Cheats of Kijongo
170. The Clever Cat
171. The Cock who Caused a Fight between Two Towns
172. The Cock's Kraal
173. The Cooking-pot and the Drum
174. The Crimson-striped Lily
175. The Cunning Hare
176. The Curse of Selfishness
177. The Dance For Water Or Rabbit's Triumph
178. The Daughter of Buk Ettemsuch
179. The Death of Abu Nowas
180. The Deceptions of Tortoise
181. The Disobedient Daughter who Married a Skull
182. The Dog and the Clever Rabbit
183. The Dog and the Kingship
184. The Dog and the Leopard
185. The Dog and the Leopard
186. The Election of the King Bird
187. The Elephant and the Tortoise
188. The Elephant That Wanted to Dance
189. The Enchanted Buck
190. The Fairy Bird
191. The Fairy Frog
192. The Famine
193. The Fate of Agbor the Hunter, Who Killed His Wife and Children
194. The Fights of Mbuma-Tyetye
195. The Fish and the Leopard's Wife
196. The Flame Tree
197. The Flying Lion
198. The Foolish Hare
199. The Fools
200. The Fox and the Hen
201. The Frog and the Elephant
202. The Frog and the Leopard
203. The Frog and the Lizard
204. The Game of Hide-and-Seek
205. The Giant Goat
206. The Golden-crested Crane
207. The Grinding-Stone That Ground Flour By Itself
208. The Guardians of the Snakes
209. The Happy Age in the Animal World
210. The Hare and the Lion
211. The Hare Who Earned a Cow and a Chieftainship
212. The Hawk and the Owl
213. The Hawk and the Rooster
214. The Heart of a Monkey
215. The Holy Man
216. The Home of the Rat
217. The Horns of the Buffalo
218. The Hunt Of Lion And Jackal.
219. The Hunter and the Tortoise
220. The Hunters and the Snake
221. The Hyena and the Moonbeam
222. The Hyena's Punishment
223. The Hyena's Spots
224. The Jackal and the Heron
225. The Jackal and the Hyena
226. The Jackal and the Leopard
227. The Jackal and the Spring
228. The Jackal And The Wolf.
229. The Jackal, the Dove, and the Panther
230. The Jackal, the Hare and the Cock
231. The Judgment Of Baboon.
232. The King and the 'Nsiat Bird
233. The King and the Ju Ju Tree
234. The King of the Snakes
235. The King who Married the Cock's Daughter
236. The King's Magic Drum
237. The Kites and the Crows
238. The Law Concerning Fortune-tellers
239. The Leopard and the Crane
240. The Leopard and the Goat
241. The Leopard and the Goat
242. The Leopard and the Python
243. The Leopard and the Ram
244. The Leopard, the Hare, and the Monkey
245. The Leopard, the Squirrel, and the Tortoise
246. The Leopard, the Tortoise, and the Bush Rat
247. The Lies of Tortoise
248. The Lion And Jackal
249. The Lion And Jackal
250. The Lion and the Wolf
251. The Lion of Manda
252. The Lion-girl
253. The Lion, the Hyena and the Hare
254. The Lion, the Hyena, and the Hare
255. The Lion, the Hyena, and the Rabbit
256. The Lion, The Jackal, And The Man
257. The Lion's Talisman
258. The Lioness And The Ostrich
259. The Little Hare
260. The Little Red Tortoise
261. The Locusts
262. The Lost Message
263. The Lucky Fisherman
264. The Magic Date Trees
265. The Magic Drum
266. The Magic Mirror
267. The Magician and the Sultan’s Son
268. The Man Who Knew Too Much
269. The Man Who Wanted to Fool Death
270. The Monkey Finds Worry
271. The Monkey, the Shark, and the Washerman’s Donkey
272. The Monkey's Fiddle
273. The Mpa Bana Bird
274. The Oil Merchant
275. The Omanhene Who Liked Riddles
276. The One-handed Girl
277. The Origin Of Death (5 versions)
278. The Orphan Boy and the Magic Stone
279. The Ostrich Hunt
280. The Owl and His Friends
281. The Parrot and the Owl
282. The Physician’s Son and the King of the Snakes
283. The Poor Man and His Wife of Wood
284. The Punishment of the Turtle
285. The Quits of Gomba
286. The Rabbit and His Ears
287. The Rabbit and the Alligator
288. The Rabbit and the Animal Wizard
289. The Rabbit and the Elephant
290. The Rabbit and the Moon
291. The Rabbit and the Other Animals
292. The Rabbit Escapes the Wolf's Anger
293. The Rabbit Prince
294. The Race Between the Turtle and the Antelope
295. The Reward of Industry
296. The Rival Roosters
297. The River Fairy
298. The Robber and the Old Man
299. The Rover of the Plain
300. The Royal Puff Adders of Budo
301. The Sacred Milk of Koumongoe
302. The Savior of the Animals
303. The Sea-turtle When Caught
304. The Sense of the Weasel
305. The Serpent's Bride
306. The Singing Skeleton
307. The Slave Girl who Tried to Kill her Mistress
308. The Squirrel and the Kingship
309. The Squirrel and the Spider
310. The Stars and the Stars’ Road
311. The Story Of A Dam
312. The Story of a Gazelle
313. The Story of a Panic
314. The Story of Dschemil and Dschemila
315. The Story of Halfman
316. The Story Of Hare
317. The Story of Hassebu
318. The Story of Igiri and Her Husband Inkang
319. The Story of Kibate
320. The Story of Kintu
321. The Story of Mpobe the Hunter
322. The Story of Nsangi and the Apes
323. The Story of Semai-mai
324. The Story of the Chief Kasuju
325. The Story of the Cock and the Hen
326. The Story of the Drummer and the Alligators
327. The Story of the Fairy Bee
328. The Story of the Fairy Foxes
329. The Story of the Frog
330. The Story of the Grey Heron
331. The Story of the Hero Makoma
332. The Story of the Hippos
333. The Story of the King's Son and the Magic Song
334. The Story of the Lightning and the Thunder
335. The Story of the Little Birds who lived in A Cave
336. The Story of the Shining Princess
337. The Story of the Two Friends
338. The Story of the War between Inkum and Enfitop
339. The Story of the Witch who Tried to Kill Her Husband
340. The Story of the Wonderful Goat
341. The Stranger
342. The Suitors of Njambo's Daughter
343. The Suitors of Princess Gorilla
344. The Sultan's Daughter
345. The Sultan's Snake-child
346. The Sun
347. The Three Little Eggs
348. The Tiger, The Ram, And The Jackal
349. The Tortoise with a Pretty Daughter
350. The Trapper, the Lion and the Hare
351. The Treachery of Tortoise
352. The Turtle, the Wolf, and the Hyena
353. The Ungrateful Man
354. The Unnatural Mother
355. The White Dove
356. The White Man And Snake (2 versions)
357. The Wolf and His Two Dinners
358. The Wolf's Butter
359. The Woman and the Parrot
360. The Woman with Two Skins
361. The Woman, the Ape, and the Child
362. The Woodcutter and His Donkey
363. The World's Reward
364. The Young Thief
365. The Zebra Stallion.
366. Thunder and Anansi
367. Tink-Tinkje
368. Tit For Tat
369. To Lose an Elephant for the Sake of a Wren
370. Tortoise and the Bojabi Tree
371. Tortoise Covers His Ignorance
372. Tortoise in a Race
373. Tortoise, Dog, Leopard, and the Njabi Fruit
374. Tortoises Hunting Ostriches.
375. Udea and Her Seven Brothers
376. Unkind Criticism
377. Walukaga the Blacksmith
378. What Caused their Deaths?
379. What Happened at Okuni When Anyone Was Killed by Accident
380. When Lion Could Fly.
381. Which is the Better Hunter, an Eagle or a Leopard?
382. Which is the Fattest: Manatus, Hog, or Oyster?
383. Who Are Crocodile's Relatives?
384. Who Is King of Birds?
385. Who Was King?
386. Who Was the Thief?
387. Why a Hawk kills Chickens
388. Why a Python Never Swallows a Tortoise
389. Why Chameleons and Snakes Are Hated by Men
390. Why Dead People Are Buried
391. Why Edidor Killed Her Husband and Her Lover
392. Why Goats Became Domestic
393. Why Has Jackal A Long, Black Stripe On His Back?
394. Why Leopard Can Only Catch Prey On Its Left Side
395. Why Moon and Stars Receive Light from Sun
396. Why Mosquitoes Buzz
397. Why Spiders Are Always Found in Corners of Ceilings
398. Why the Bat Flies by Night
399. Why the Bat is Ashamed to Be Seen in the Daytime
400. Why the Bat Sleeps All Through the Day
401. Why the Bush Cow and the Elephant are Bad Friends
402. Why the Cat Came to Man's House
403. Why the Cat kills Rats
404. Why the Flies Bother the Cows
405. Why the Goat Left the Jungle
406. Why the Hare’s Nose is Slit
407. Why the Head of the Male Goat Smells So Strong
408. Why the Heron has a Crooked Neck
409. Why the Hyena is Lame
410. Why the Lizard Moves His Head Up and Down
411. Why the Mist Rises from the Water
412. Why the Moon Waxes and Wanes
413. Why the Plantain-Stalk Bears But One Bunch
414. Why the Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky
415. Why the Weaver-Bird and the Woodpecker Are Enemies
416. Why the Worms Live Underneath the Ground
417. Why Tigers Never Attack Men Unless Provoked
418. Why White Ants Always Harm Man's Property

About the Story Finder

This "Story Finder" project is inspired by the Story Finder books by Sharon Elswit; you can find out about all four of her books — Caribbean Story Finder, Latin American Story Finder, Jewish Story Finder, East Asian Story Finder — at her webisite: SharonElswit.com. They are incredibly useful resources! Each volume in the series features hundreds of stories, and for each story she provides a detailed summary along with variant versions across multiple sources. Here's a screenshot of a two-page spread from the Latin American Story Finder, so you can get a sense of the approach she has taken (click on the image for a larger view):

In those books, Elswit relies on a variety of published and online sources, some of which are readily accessible (i.e. available in local libraries or at used booksellers, etc.), but some of which are not. Since discovering her books, I started wondering what it would be like to create some Story Finder books that are based on public domain and open access resources that everyone can read.

My own focus for the past couple of years has been folktales from Africa, and I've done a comprehensive survey of English-language public domain and open access materials available as online books or online articles at the Internet Archive. That includes public domain books published before 1928, books published after 1928 whose copyrights have lapsed, plus materials that are available with Creative Commons licenses or other forms of open access. I completed that survey in conjunction with the books that were available by controlled digital lending from the Internet Archive; you can see the bibliography guide I published here: A Reader's Guide to African Folktales at the Internet Archive (free ebook). Unfortunately, the big publishers' lawsuit against the Internet Archive has put the future of controlled digital lending in doubt, but there is still an abundance of public domain and open access material available.

What finally prompted me to start working on an actual Story Finder project was that I started recording for LibriVox in August 2023. I made an index of the African folktales already available at LibriVox (142 stories from 5 different sources), and then I started recording more African folktale sources. I completed one book which has been cataloged (Stafford's Animal Fables) and another book which is still waiting to be cataloged; meanwhile, I am working on my third book! By the time that third book is done, I will have added 130 more stories, nearly doubling the number of stories available. And I have LOTS more sources to record. There are over 1000 African folktales available in public domain books, and that many again (actually more) in public domain articles from journals like Folklore, The Journal of American Folklore, etc.

So, I am going to be recording (and recording and recording...), and I am also going to be writing posts at this blog featuring the story motifs and story types that reveal the inner workings and creative invention of African storytelling traditions. These posts will, in turn, provide the raw material for a book I would eventually like to write about African storytelling, something similar to Elswit's Story Finder books, although instead of summaries I will include public-domain texts of the stories. Of course, it won't be enough just to rely on public domain sources; I will need to supplement these colonial-era sources with more contemporary work, with an emphasis on work published by African storytellers and scholars, citing those resources in the bibliography and in the variant versions. Still, I am excited about building the book with a core of public domain materials that everyone can access online all over the world.

Here are the posts I've written so far:

1. Motif: Heyo, House!
2. Motif: Measuring the Snake
3. Type: The Bird That Made Milk
4. Type: Chain of Debt Collectors
5. Type: Trickster and Dupe on a Journey

Meanwhile, just for fun, I made a randomizing widget which displays LibriVox recordings of African folktales embedded right here in my blog. You can see the widget below, and also in the blog sidebar. I'll update the widget as more and more stories get added — and if you are curious about such widgets, I build them with a free program created by a former student: RotateContent.com.

Happy listening!

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Type: Trickster and Dupe on a Journey

Today's story — "How Isuro the Rabbit Tricked Gudu" — is from The Orange Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, published in 1906 (for more stories, see the index). You can listen to today's story via LibriVox and which you can read online at the Internet Archive. The story is item 5 in the audiobook playlist:

Of all Lang's Fairy Books, the Orange Fairy Book is the one with the most stories from Africa, and you can find all of the African stories from the Fairy Books here: African Folktales in the Fairy Books of Andrew Lang. This particular story comes from the Shona storytelling tradition, and the characters have their Shona names: Isuro (tsuro) the rabbit and Gudu (gudo) the Baboon.

The book is illustrated by Henry Justice Ford, and here is his illustration for the story, showing the first trick, when the baboon gets the rabbit to drop his food in the water, while he only pretends to drop his food, dropping a stone in stead.

This story type is Trickster and Dupe on a Journey. The role of the trickster usually shifts at some point in the story. For example, in this story, the baboon starts out tricking the rabbit, but finally the rabbit gets wise to what is going on, and in the final part of the story, the rabbit is the trickster and the baboon becomes his dupe.

To see another story of this type, take a look here:

"Baboon and Hare" in "Tales and Proverbs of the Vandau of Portuguese South Africa" by Franz Boas and C. Kamba Simango published in Journal of American Folklore. This version has a different role reversal: on the first journey, Baboon travels with Wild-Cat, and Baboon tricks Wild-Cat every time. When Wild-Cat comes home, he tells Hare what happened. Baboon then asks Hare to journey with him, Hare makes Baboon his dupe. Then Baboon wants revenge and he takes Hare on another journey, but again Hare outsmarts him. You will find both the Ndau version here and a literal English translation.