African
Folktales Still Influence Modern Thought
By
Van G. Garrett
African folktales are studied, recited, and
reinvented ethnographic documents that offer a plethora of
information, which supplies moral, cultural, global, and
historical perspectives about life. These parables, widespread
across the pallets of America, are likened to tales and morals
contained in every holy book, with regards to the manner in
which vivid illustrations incorporate people and animals to
comment on life and its bitter and sweet moments.
These commentaries, which can be narrated by
a spider, donkey, frog, snake, dog, monster, human, or another
being is instrumental in conveying elaborate plots and
scenarios. However, most African folktales usually incorporate
two central characters, a protagonist and antagonist, to present
a broad commentary about life.
The protagonist, often fun loving,
good-natured, or naïve, experiences a struggle with an
over-zealous greed, which becomes a weakness exploited by an
antagonist who is usually a trickster. This interplay is not
only seen in folktales. But it is demonstrated in epics and
poems, as edited by T.V.F. Brogan in
The Princeton Handbook
of Multicultural Poetries (1996, Princeton University Press,
p. 3), “African oral epics [and folktales] have now been
recorded in a wide belt of populations ranging from Ghana and
Mali to Nigeria, in West Africa, to the Bantu-speaking peoples
of Cameroun and Gabon and culminating among the Bantu-speaking
peoples of Zaire.”
This continent and world-spanning phenomenon
is a continuum of a rich legacy that is African and American.
Before these tales were recorded in written fashion they were
stories verbally passed from generation to generation. Due to
migration and travel, stories have become more expansive and
modified renditions that serve as catalysts for other literary
conventions (i.e. fiction, epics, and various narratives), as
well as influence the other humanities.
These stories often sung or chanted for
purposes of memorization, would later manifest into “pattin’
jumba,” a type of African oratory expression that is a form of
patting and rapping experienced by mid-nineteenth-century
enslaved.
This patting and rhyming evolved over decades
and in the late twentieth-century the combination of folktales
and music became known as “rap,” a highly lucrative art form
born in Africa and widely appreciated in America. Folktales, the
proverbial grandparents of pattin jumba and rap, have become
more modern and adaptive to the times. However, their
functionality has not changed. They still offer instruction
about life and they still are widely enjoyed by intellectuals
and non-intellectuals because of their ability to address
humanistic appeals.
Additionally, these tales, originating in
Africa transcend race and age, as they explore concerns and
angst experienced by all nationalities.
What makes these works memorable and
respected is that even the most basic or unpredictable being can
be used to convey or relay a message about life without
condemning or sounding overly pious. Furthermore, this type of
lesson without condemning is effective and popular because it
verbalizes experiences many people feel are qualified in
isolated scenarios, referring to death, sickness, loneliness,
and rejection.
The following folktales, anthologized in the
One
Hundred and One African-American Read-Aloud Stories edited
by Susan Kantor (1998, Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers)
illustrates the infusion of characters specific to Africa and
shared morals and lessons experienced by Americans.
In “Dividing the Cheese” we see via two
central characters (antagonist and protagonist) that the adages
of “easy come easy go” and “there is no honor among
thieves” are axioms that are as true as the tale’s
commentary about honesty.
Dividing the Cheese
When the monkey cheats the cats
out of their cheese, they’ve gotten just what they
deserve.
Two cats stole a cheese. Neither
thought the other would divide it equally so they agreed
to ask the monkey to do it.
“With pleasure,” said the monkey.
He sent the cats to fetch a scale. Then he got out his
knife. But instead of cutting the cheese in half, he
made one portion larger than the other. He put both
pieces on the scale. “I didn’t divide this
quite right,” he said. “I’ll just even it up.”
The monkey began to eat the cheese
from the heavier side. As he ate, the heavier side
became lighter than the other piece. Then he changed
over and began to eat from the other side.
The cats, watching their snack
disappear, said, “We’ve changed our mind. Please,
let us have the rest of the cheese, and we will divide
it ourselves.”
“No, a fight might arise between
you, and then the king of animals would be angry with
me,” said the monkey.
And he continued to eat, first on one
side, and then on the other, until all the cheese was
gone.
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In this tale the antagonist capitalizes on
the protagonists greed and desire to conceal their ill-gotten
cheese. The antagonist exploits their weaknesses, solicits their
services, and depletes their food supply. This concise tale is a
commentary about how dishonesty begets dishonesty and how there
is no such thing as a balanced scale when wrong is being
weighed.
“Why the Hippopotamus Lives in the Water”
is another example of how weaknesses, foibles, and excessive
pride (in humans) can be exploited if one is not careful.
Why the Hippopotamus Lives in the
Water
The tortoise uses a clever trick
to uncover the hippo’s secret name.
Many years ago, the hippopotamus,
whose name was Isantim, was one of the biggest kings on
the land—only the elephant was bigger. This hippo had
seven fat wives, of whom he was very fond, and they went
everywhere together. Now and then he used to give a big
feast for the people, but though everyone knew the
hippo, no one, except his seven wives, knew his real
name.
At one of the feasts, just as the
people were about to sit down, the hippo said, “You
have come to feed at my table, but none of you know my
name. If no one can guess my name, you shall all go away
without your dinner.”
After some time, as no one could
guess his name, they reluctantly prepared to leave. But
before doing so, the tortoise stood up and asked the
hippopotamus what would happen if he told him his name
at the next feast?
The hippo replied that if the
tortoise discovered his name, he and his whole family
would leave the land, and for the future would dwell in
the water.
Now, the tortoise knew that it was
the custom for the hippo and his wives to go every
morning and evening to the river to wash and have a
drink. The hippo used to walk at the head of the line,
and his seven wives followed behind. One day, when they
had gone down to the river to bathe, the tortoise dug a
small hole in the middle of the path, and then hid
himself behind a nearby bush and waited.
When the hippo and his wives
returned, two of the wives were some distance behind the
others, so the tortoise came out from where he had been
hiding, and crawled into the hole he had dug, leaving
the greater part of his shell exposed. When the two
hippo wives came along, the first one knocked her foot
against the tortoise’s shell, and immediately called
out to her husband, “Oh! Isantim, my husband, I have
hurt my foot.” As you can imagine, hearing this made
the tortoise very glad! As soon as all of the hippos
were out of sight, the happy tortoise went home.
At the next feast the hippo reminded
his guests that they could not eat unless someone knew
his name. The tortoise got up and said, “You promise
you will not be angry if I tell you your name?” The
hippo promised. The tortoise then shouted as loud as he
was able, “Your name is Isantim!” When the hippo
admitted that this was his name, a cheer went up from
all the people, and they sat down to dinner.
When the feast was over, the hippo
and his seven wives, in accordance with his promise,
went down to the river, and they have lived in the water
from that day till now. And although they come ashore to
feed at night, you never can find a hippo on the land in
the daytime.
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This tale of trickery demonstrates
determination in the turtle and arrogance in the hippo. The
hippo, thinking more highly of himself than his guests made
himself susceptible to the ploys of his challenger. The victor
of this tale was willing to plan, get in the mud, and suffer
injury and bodily harm to achieve his objective. Often times one
cannot see the determination in others because he focuses on his
vanities. “Why the Hippopotamus Lives in the Water” proves
that the person who serves arrogance as the main course will get
his just deserts.
In “Dividing the Cheese” and “Why the
Hippopotamus Lives in Water” the reader and listener is lulled
by the musicality of language and mesmerized by the brevity of
the passages. It is this “traditional” approach to education
found in these tales and hundreds of others that offers lessons
to Africans and Americans about the quality of life and the
complexities of living.
These rewarding tales are vital to the
communities in which they are shared and to the world at large.
By exploring and appreciating African and African-American
folktales one obtains information, which supplies moral,
cultural, social, and historical perspectives about the world.
Van G. Garrett, a writer,
photographer, and teacher from Houston, TX can best be described
as a “contemporary courier of creativity.”
Garrett, a 1999 graduate of Houston Baptist University,
has a BA in English (with an emphasis in creative writing) and
Mass Media (with an emphasis in print) which he has utilized as
demonstrated by his various publications and honors. He was awarded the Danny Lee Lawrence prize
for poetry in 1999, a 2002 Callaloo
Creative Writing Fellowship for poetry, and his poems have
appeared in Rolling Out,
Life Imitating Art, Swirl,
Drumvoices Review, Curbside
Review, Shanks’ Mare, Urban Beat,
E! Scene and
elsewhere. His photography has appeared in Source, has been contracted by Capitol Records, and has been on
display at the Museum of Fine Arts of Houston.
v.g.garrett@usa.net
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