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Folklore of Africa

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Folktales include all forms of narrative - - written or oral - - handed down through the years and reflecting the lives and imaginations of the people. According to Aarne-Thompson, the three types of tales are: Animal * Tales, Ordinary * Folktales, and Jokes and * Anecdotes. They categorized the tales using motifs. *.

Folklore of Africa
Tunisia | Libya | Egypt | Sudan | Ethiopia
Northwest Africa Coast: Morocco, Western Sahara, Canary Islands
Algeria

West Africa and Offshore: Mauritania, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria

Central Africa: Cameroon, Sao Tome, Equitorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Angola, Chad, Central African Republic, Zaire, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Kenya, Djibouti, Somalia, Tanzania, Mozambique

Southern Africa: Republic of South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi

Overall Africa

Aardema, Verna. Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain: A Nandi Tale. NY: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1983. (32 ps.) [AFRICA][cumulative tale telling how Ki-pat brought rain to the drought-stricken Kapiti Plain]
Aardema, Verna. Misoso: Once Upon A Time Tales From Africa. NY: Knopf, 1994. [12 varied places in Africa]
Arkhurst, Joyce. The Adventures of Spider: West African Folk Tales. Boston: Little, Brown, 1964. [WEST AFRICA] (6 tales about Spider including why he lives in ceilings and dark corners)
Daly, Niki. Why the Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky. [NIGERIA]
Dayrell, Elphinstone. Why the Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky: An African Folktale. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1968. (26 ps.) [NIGERIA] (how the sun and water once lived on earth as friends but then was driven into the sky)
Gerson, Mary-Joan. Why the Sky Is Far Away. [NIGERIA]
MacDonald, Margaret Read. Mabela the Clever. Morton Grove, Ill.: Albert Whitman, 2001. (32 ps.) [AFRICA] (a mouse is aware of surroundings and avoids being tricked by the cat)
Medearis, Angela Shelf. The Singing Man. [NIGERIA]
Mollel, Tololwa. The Flying Tortoise. [NIGERIA]
Mollel, Tololwa. Kitoto the Mighty. NY: Stoddart, 1998. (32 ps.) [AFRICAN SAVANNAH] (Kitoto, a mouse living on the African Savannah, looks for a force strong enough to protect him from a hawk)
Steptoe, John. Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale. NY: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1987. (32 ps.) [1988 Coretta Scott King Illustrator's Award][Caldecott Honor Book] (Cinderella variant)

Williams, Sheron. Imani's Music. NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2000. [AFRICA] (Imani, an African grasshopper, brings music to the New World when she travels on a slave ship)

Tunisia and Libya

Egypt and Sudan

EGYPT

Ardagh, Philip. Ancient Egyptians Myths and Legends. Chicago: World Book, 2001. (64 ps.) [EGYPT]
Barker, Henry. Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. NY: Grosset & Dunlap, 1999. (46 ps.) [EGYPT] (religious beliefs of ancine Egypt with attributes of gods and goddesses)
Bower, Tamara. The Shipwrecked Sailor: An Egyptian Tale of Hieroglyphs. NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2000. (32 ps.) [EGYPT] (shipwrecked sailor finds fortune when he was befriended by a serpent that is the Prince of the magical island of Punt)
Clements, Andrew. Temple Cat.
Climo, Shirley. The Egyptian Cinderella. NY: Crowell, 1989. (32 ps.) [EGYPT] (Cinderella variant)
Fisher. Leonard Everett. The Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. NY: Holiday House, 1997. [EGYPT] (history of thirteen deities including Ra, Osiris, Isis, Nut and others)
Grant, Joan. The Monster That Grew Small: An Egyptian Folktale. NY: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1987. (32 ps.) [EGYPT] (timid boy finds courage by going after a monster that seems to shrink when confronted)
Hofmeyr, Dianne. The Star-Bearer: A Creation Myth from Ancient Egypt. NY: Farrar Straus Giroux, 2001. (unp.) [EGYPT] (creation stories)
Kimmel, Eric. Rimonah of the Flashing Sword: A North African Tale. NY: Holiday House, 1995. [EGYPT] (Snow White variant)
Laskowski, Jerzy. Master of the Royal Cats. [EGYPT]
Manniche, Lise. The Prince Who Knew His Fate: An Ancient Egyptian Tale. NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art/Philomel Books, 1981. (40 ps.) [EGYPT] (predetermined fate of a prince at birth by a crocodile, snake, or dog)
McDermott, Gerald. The Voyage of Osiris. [EGYPT]
Mike, Jan. Gift of the Nile: An Ancient Egyptian Legend. Mahwah, NJ: Troll, 1992. [EGYPT] (boat ride on the Nile: Mutemwia proves love for Pharaoh)
Morley, Jacqueline. Egyptian Myths Lincolnwood, Ill.: Peter Bedrick Books, 1999. (64 ps.) [EGYPT] (11 tales of gods and goddesses of ancient Egypt)
Nardo, Don. Egyptian Mythology. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Pub., 2001. (128 ps.)
Oppenheim, Shulamith Levey. The Hundredth Name. [EGYPT]
Palazzo-Craig, Janet. The Golden Flower: A Story from Egypt. Mahwah, NJ: Troll, 1996. (32 ps.) [EGYPT] (boat ride on the Nile; Metemwia proves love for Pharaoh)
Quie, Sarah. Myths and Civilization of the Ancient Egyptians. NY: P. Bedrick Books, 1998. (44 ps.) [EGYPT] (myths linked with the history of the country)
Remler, Pat. Egyptian Mythology A to Z: A Young Reader's Companion. NY: Facts on File, 2000. (180 ps.) [EGYPT] (figures, places, events of Egyptian mythology)
Rowe, Anne. The Secret Name of Ra. Crystal Lake, IL: Rigby Interactive Library, 1996. (24 ps.) [EGYPT] (Isis tricks Ra into revealing his secret name so that she and Osiris can become rulers of the earth)
Stolz, Mary Slattery. Zekmet, the Stone Carver. [EGYPT]
Walsh, Jill Paton. Pepi and the Secret Name. [EGYPT]

SUDAN

Aardema, Verna. What's So Funny, Ketu?: A Nuer Tale. NY: Dial Press, 1982. (32 ps.) [SUDAN] (Ketu is rewarded by being allowed to hear animals think after he saved the life of a snake)

Ethiopia

Araujo, Frank P. The Perfect Orange: A Tale From Ethiopia. Windsor, CA: Rayve Productions, 1994. (32 ps.) [ETHIOPIA] (generous gift to the king)
Ashabranner, Brent. The Lion's Whiskers and Other Ethiopian Tales. North Haven, Conn.: Linnet Books, 1997. [ETHIOPIA] (folktales from the nine tribes of Ethiopia)
Day, Nancy Raines. The Lion's Whiskers. NY: Scholastic, 1995. [ETHIOPIA - AMHARA] (medicine man's advice)
Kurtz, Jane. Fire on the Mountain. NY: Aladdin Paperbacks, 1994. (unp.) [ETHIOPIA] (challenge, wits)

Schrier, Jeffrey. On the Wings of Eagles. [ETHIOPIA]

NORTHWEST AFRICA COAST

(Morocco, Western Sahara, Canary Islands)

Czernecki, Stefan. Zorah's Magic Carpet. [MOROCCO]
Schwartz, Howard. The Diamond Tree: Jewish Tales from Around the World. NY: HarperCollins, 1991. (66 ps.) ("The Diamond Tree") [MOROCCO] (Hansel and Gretel variant)
Schwartz, Howard. The Wonder Child and Other Jewish Fairy Tales. NY: HarperCollins, 1996. (66 ps.) ("The Black Cat") [MOROCCO] (midwives; demon's birth; positive feminine role models)

Schwartz, Howard. The Wonder Child and Other Jewish Fairy Tales. NY: HarperCollins, 1996. (66 ps.) ("The Purim Dybbuk") [MOROCCO] (rabbi finds a way to exorcise the dybbuk)

Algeria

Schwartz, Howard. The Sabbath Lion: A Jewish Folktale from Algeria. NY: HarperCollins, 1992. [JEWISH FOLKLORE] [ALGERIA] (special protection for traveling during the Sabbath)

WEST AFRICA AND OFFSHORE

(Mauritania, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Liberia,
Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria)

OVERALL WEST AFRICA

Aardema, Verna. Anansi Does the Impossible!: An Ashanti Tale. NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1997. [WEST AFRICA] (Anansi and his wife outsmart the Sky God and win back the folktales of their people)
Aardema, Verna. Anansi Finds A Fool: An Ashanti Tale. NY: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1992. (unp.) [West Africa] (Anansi tries to trick someone into laying his fish trap but is tricked into doing it himself) (trickster)
Aardema, Verna. Half-A-Ball-Of-Kenki: An Ashanti Tale. NY: F. Warne, 1979. (31 ps.) [ASHANTI] [WEST AFRICA] (Half-a-Ball-of-Kenki rescues Fly from Leopard during which time the Leopard receives his spots)
Aardema, Verna. How the Ostrich Got Its Long Neck: A Tale From the Akamba of Kenya. NY: Scholastic, 1995. [WEST AFRICA] [AKAMBA - KENYA] (pourquoi tale of the short-necked ostrich and the toothache-ridden crocodile)
Aardema, Verna. Koi and the Kola Nuts: A Tale From Liberia. NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1999. (32 ps.) [WEST AFRICA] (chief's son must make his way in the world with a sackful of kola nuts and the help of creatures he has treated kindly)
Aardema, Verna. The Lonely Lioness and the Ostrich Chicks: A Masai Tale. NY: A. A. Knopf, 1996. (unp.) [TANZANIA, KENYA][WEST AFRICA][MASAI] (mongoose helps an ostrich rescue her chicks from the lonely lioness who stole them)
Aardema, Verna. Oh, Kojo! How Could You!: An Ashanti Tale. NY: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1984. (32 ps.) [ASHANTI - WEST AFRICA](trickster)
Aardema, Verna. Princess Gorilla and a New Kind of Water: A Mpongwe Tale. NY: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1988. (32 ps.) [MPONGWE - WEST AFRICA] (test motif) (King Gorilla decrees that no one may marry his daughter until a suitor strong enough to consume a barrel of strange, intoxicating water is found)
Aardema, Verna. Rabbit Makes A Monkey of Lion: A Swahili Tale. NY: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1989. (32 ps.) [KENYA, TANZANIA] (with help of Bush-rat and Turtle, Rabbit makes a fool of the king of the forest)
Aardema, Verna. The Vingananee and the Tree Toad: A Liberian Tale. NY: F. Warne, 1983. (48 ps.) [LIBERIA] [WEST AFRICA] (a Vingananee beats up all the other animals and eats their stew until the tiny Tree Toad offers to fight him)
Aardema, Verna. Who's In Rabbit's House?:A Masai Tale. NY: Dial Press, 1977. (32 ps.) [KENYA, TANZANIA] [WEST AFRICA] (Rabbit has a problem when someone is inside her house and won't let her in)
Aardema, Verna. Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears: A West African Tale. NY: Dial Press, 1975. (30 ps.) [West Africa]
Anderson, David. Origin of Life on Earth: An African Creation Myth. Mt. Airy, MD.: Sights Productions, 1991. (unp.) [YORUBA - WEST AFRICA] (Yoruba creation myth in which the deity, Obatala, comes from the sky to create the world)
Appiah, Sonia. Amoko and Efua Bear. [GHANA]
Bryan, Ashley. Beat the Story Drum, Pum-Pum. NY: Atheneum, 1980. (68 ps.) [NIGERIA] (5 tales)
Daly, Niki. Why the Sun and Moon Live in the Sky. NY: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1994. [SOUTHERN NIGERIA - IBIBIO TRIBE] [WEST AFRICA](Sun invites the Sea to visit)
Dee, Ruby. Tower to Heaven. [GHANA]
Diakite, Baba Wague. The Hunterman and the Crocodiles: A West African Folktale. NY: Scholastic, 1997. (unp.) [WEST AFRICA] (Donso, a hunterman, learns the importance of living in harmony with nature and placing human beings equal to and not above other living things)
Diop, Birago. Mother Crocodile. NY: Delacorte Press, 1981. (30 ps.) [SENEGAL] (little crocodiles reluctant to believe mother's stories until almost too late)
Gershator, Phillis. The Iroko-Man: A Yoruba Folktale. NY: Orchard Books, 1994. [YORUBA - WEST AFRICA] (first born child, man, cleverness against the Iroko-Man)
Gershator, Phillis. Zzzng! Zzzng! ZZZny!: A Yoruba Tale. NY: Orchard Books, 1998. (32 ps.) [YORUBA -WEST AFRICA] (Ear, Leg, Arm, Mosquito - - don't be ignored!)
Gerson, Mary-Joan. Why the Sky Is Far Away: A Nigerian Folktale. Boston: Little, Brown, 1994. (unp.) [BINI - NIGERIA] (Sky was once so close to the Earth that people cut parts of it to eat causing the Sun to move far away because of their waste and greed)
Gleeson, Brian. Koi and the Kola Nuts. [LIBERIA]
Lake, Mary Dixon. The Royal Drum. [GHANA]
Lilly, Melinda. Spider and His Son Find Wisdom: An Akan Tale. Vero Beach, Florida: Rourke Press, 1998. (30 ps.) [GHANA - AFRICA] (Anansi learns something new about himself while trying to gather up all the wisdom he thinks he has wasted on the villagers)
Martin, Francesca. Clever Tortoise: A Traditional African Tale. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2000. (35 ps.) [TANZANIA] (trickery of clever tortoise causes elephant and hippopotamus to have a tug of war with each other)
Medearis, Angela Shelf. Seven Spools of Thread. [GHANA]
Mollel, Tololwa. Ananse's Feast: An Ashanti Tale. NY: Clarion Books, 1997. [ASHANTI - GHANA] (Ananse tricks Akye, the turtle, so that he can eat all the food himself but Akye finds a way to get even)
Mollel, Tololwa. The Flying Tortoise: An Igbo Tale. NY: Oxford University Press, 1993. (unp.) [southeastern NIGERIA - Igbo] (why tortoise has a checkered shell)
Mollel, Tololwa. Orphan Boy. NY: Clarion Books, 1990. (32 ps.) [MASAI] [EAST AFRICA] (an old man is curious about the orphan boy's mysterious powers - why Venus is known as Kileken, the orphan by, to the Masai)
Mollel, Tololwa. Shadow Dance. NY: Clarion Books, 1998. (31 ps.) [TANZANIA] (clever Salome must trick the crocodile she has just rescued from becoming his next meal)
Mollel, Tololwa. Song Bird. NY: Clarion Books, 1999. (32 ps.) [TANZANIA] (a magical bird helps a kind girl get back her people's stolen cattle from Makucha the monster)
Mollel, Tololwa. Subira Subira. NY: Clarion Books, 2000. (32 ps.) [TANZANIA] (how a girl learns a lesson in patience when a spirit woman sends her to get three whiskers from a lion)
Obinkaram, Echewa. The Magic Tree: A Folktale from Nigeria. [NIGERIA] (magic fruit tree helps orphaned slave boy)
Offodile, Buchi. The Orphan Girl and Other Stories: West African Folktales. NY: Interlink Books, 2001. (260 ps.) [BENIN; BURKINA FASO; CAMEROON; COTE D'IVOIRE, etc.]
Olaleye, Isaac. In the Rainfield. NY: Blue Sky Press, 2000. (unp.) [YORUBA, NIGERIA - AFRICA] (contest between wind, fire and rain)
Riordan, James. The Coming of Night: A Yoruba Tale from West Africa. Brookfield, Conn.: Millbrook Press, 1999. (unp.) [YORUBA -WEST AFRICA] (orgin of night)
Shepard, Aaron. Master Man: A Tall Tale of Nigeria. NY: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 2000. (unp.) [HAUSA - NIGERIA] (tall tale - origin of thunder)
Tadjo, Veronique. Lord of the Dance: An African Retelling. NY: Lippincott, 1989. [SENUFO - IVORY COAST] (poem telling the story of a certain mask of the Senufo people)

Wolkstein, Diane. The Day Ocean Came to Visit. San Diego: Harcourt, 2001. [NIGERIA] (origin of sun, moon, stars)

CENTRAL AFRICA

(Cameroon, Sao Tome, Equitorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of the Congo,
Angola, Chad, Central African Republic, Zaire, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda,
Kenya, Djibouti, Somalia, Tanzania, Mozambique)

Lexau, Joan. Crocodile and Hen: A Bakongo Folktale. NY: HarperCollins, 2001. (45 ps.) [FRENCH CONGO - Fjort people] (why the crocodile does not eat the hen) CENTRAL
Aardema, Verna. Bimwili and the Zimwi: A Tale from Zanzibar. NY: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1985. (32 ps.) [TANZANIA - ZANZIBAR][CENTRAL AFRICA] (A Swahili girl is abducted by a Zimwi and told to be the voice inside his singing drum)
Aardema, Verna. Sebgugugu the Glutton: A Bantu Tale From Rwanda. Grand Rapids, Mich., W.B. Eerdmans Pub., 1993. (unp.) [RWANDA] [CENTRAL] (greedy poor man tests the patience of Imana, Lord of Rwanda, until he loses everything)
Aardema, Verna. Traveling to Tondo: A Tale of the Nkundo of Zaire. NY: Knopf, 1991. (34 ps.) [Democratic Republic - Congo] (noodlehead tale) [CENTRAL]
Knutson, Barbara. Why the Crab Has No Head. [ZAIRE]
Lilly, Melinda. Wanyana and Matchmaker Frog: A Bagandan Tale. Vero Beach, Fla.: Rourke Press, 1998. (31 ps.) [UGANDA - CENTRAL AFRICA] (Anansi tale)
Suzan, Gerardo. The Bojabi Tree: A Folktale from Gabon. NY: Scholastic, 1994. [GABON] (to end a famine, the animals of the Land of Beasts must remember the name of an enchanted tree)

KENYA

Aardema, Verna. The Crocodile and the Ostrich: A Tale From the Akamba of Kenya. NY: Scholastic, 1993. [AKAMBA - KENYA] (how the ostrich got long neck)
Aardema, Verna. How the Ostrich Got Its Long Neck: A Tale from the Akamba of Kenya. [KENYA] (why long neck)
Mollel, Tololwa. A Promise to the Sun. [KENYA]

CAMEROON

Grifalconi, Ann. The Village of Round and Square Houses. Boston: Little, Brown, 1986. (30 ps.) [CAMEROON] (men live in square houses and women in round houses in a village on the side of a volcano)
Mollel, Tololwa. The King and the Tortoise. NY: Clarion Books, 1993. (unp.) [CAMEROON] (tortoise wins challenge of providing the king with a robe of smoke)
Oyono, Eric. Gollo and the Lion. NY: Hyperion Books for Children, 1994. (unp.) [CAMEROON] (Gollo seeks help from a soothsayer when Polgozom the lion eats his sister)

SOUTHERN AFRICA

(Republic of South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland,
Lesotho, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi)

Aardema, Verna. Behind the Back of the Mountain: Black Folktales from Southern Africa. NY: Dial Press, 1973. (85 ps.) [SOUTHERN AFRICA] (10 folk legends from the Hottentot, Zulu, and Bantu.)
Aardema, Verna. Jackal's Flying Lesson: A Kholkhoi Tale. NY: Knopf, 1995. (unp.) [KHOLKHOI] [southern Africa] (trickster) (a mother dove rescues her babies from a jackal with the help of a blue crane)
Aardema, Verna. This For That: A Tonga Tale. NY: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1995. [Zambesi] (trickster) [Zimbabwe, Zambia] [SOUTHERN AFRICA] (Rabbit tricks the other animals of the African plain into giving her food and other treats)
Lilly, Melinda. Zimani's Drum: A Malawian Tale. Vero Beach, Florida: Rourke Press, 1998. (31 ps.) [MALAWI - SOUTH AFRICA] (blind Zimani has an encounter with Mkango, the lion, while out walking with his brother. The lion tries to trick him before he has a chance to kill him)
Moodie, Fiona. Nabulela: A South African Folk Tale. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997. (unp.) [NGUNI - SOUTH AFRICA] (village girls must kill Nabulela, a treacherous white-skinned monster, because they tricked the king's daughter)
Phumla. Nomi and the Magic Fish: A Story from Africa. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972. (30 ps.) [AFRICA - ZULU] (Cinderella variant of the Zulus)
Seeger, Pete. Abiyoyo: Based on a South African Lullaby and Folk Story. NY: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2001. (unp.) [SOUTH AFRICA] (making the dreaded giant Abiyoyo disappear is a way for a banned, mischievous boy and his father to be welcomed back to their town) (magicians, giants)
Seeger, Pete. Abiyoyo Returns. NY: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2001. (unp.) [SOUTH AFRICA] (giant banished from a town by a magician thirty years earlier is called back to save the town from flooding)
Sierra, Judy. The Mean Hyena: A Folktale From Malawi. NY: Lodestar Books, 1997. [MALAWI] (Kamba, the tortoise, offers to paint new coats for all the animals as a way of getting revenge on Fisi, the hyena, for playing a trick on him)
Stewart, Dianne. The Dove. NY: Greenwillow Books, 1993. (unp.) [SOUTH AFRICA] (a visiting dove provides the answer to Grandmother Maloko's financial problems when floodwaters destroy her crops and she must rely on the sale of her homemade jewelry)
Stewart, Dianne. Gift of the Sun: A Tale from South Africa. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996. (unp.) [SOUTH AFRICA] (Thulani sells the cow because he is tired of milking and that trade results in a sunflower crop and prosperity)

Wolfson, Margaret. Marriage of the Rain Goddess: A South African Myth. NY: Marlowe & Co., 1996. (unp.) [ZULU - SOUTH AFRICA] (when the rain goddess, Mbaba Mwana Waresa, chooses a mortal for a husband, heaven and earth are joined)

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For a broadened view of folklore, refer to The Folktale by Stith Thompson for tale types and motifs.

For your reading enjoyment, peruse "Folk Tales of the North American Indians" by Stith Thompson. It includes tales categorized by culture group and motif.