University of Wisconsin-Madison African Studies Program
Outreach Services

Bibliography on African Storytelling

Compiled by Jermaine Jones, African Studies Outreach (1997).

Print Resources

Abrahams, Roger. African Folktales: Traditional Stories of the Black World. New York: Pantheon Books, 1983.

Middle and High School. (A collection of 94 folktales from throughout the continent. Wide-ranging and quite useful.)

Anderson, David. The Origin of Life on Earth: An African Creation Myth. Sights, 1991.

Pre-kindergarten- Elementary. (Well-told and wonderfully- illustrated retelling of the Yoruba [Nigeria] creation myth.)

Appiah, Peggy. Ananse the Spider: tales from an Ashanti Village. Pictures by Peggy Wilson. NY: Pantheon Books, 1966. (Memorial PZ8.1 A647 An)

---. A Dirge Too Soon. Tema: Ghana Publishing Corp., 1976. (Memorial PZ4 A6474 Di)

---. The Pineapple Child, and other tales from Ashanti. Illustrated by Mora Dickson. London: Deutsch, 1969. (School of Library and Info. Studies Library. Ct398.2 Ap49p)

---. Ring of Gold. Illustrated by Laszlo Acs. London: Deutsch, 1976. (Memorial P27 A646 Ri)

---. A Smell of Onions. London: Longman, 1971. (Memorial PZ4 A 6474 Sm)

---. Tales of an Ashanti Father. Beacon Press, 1967.

Arnott, Kathleen. Tales of Temba: Traditional African Stories. New York: Henry Z Walck, 1967.

Axmed Cali Abokar. The Camel in Somali Oral Traditions. Mogadishu: Somali Academy of Sciences and Arts in cooperation with Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, 1987. (Memorial GR356.3 A9613 1987)

Beier, Ulli. The Origin of Life and Death: A Collection of Creation Myths from Africa. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1966.

Benitez, Mirna. How Spider Tricked Snake. Raintree/Steck Vaughn, 1992.

Pre-kindergarten-3rd grade. (Adapted from a Jamaican story of the West African Ananse tradition.)

Doch, Marguerite P. Stories from Africa: Folklore of the World. Illustrated by Vincent D. Smith.

Gecau, Rose. Kikuyu Folktales: their Nature and Value. Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau, 1970.

Glew, Robert Stephen. The trickster in African oral traditions. (MA thesis) (AWO G55885 R634)

Guenther, Mathias Georg. Bushmen Folktales: oral traditions of the Nharo of Botswana and the Xam of the Cape. Wiesbaden: F. Steiner, 1989. (Memorial DT764 B8 G83 1989)

Haley, Gail. A Story, A Story. Macmillan, 1970.

Explains how Anansi obtained the world's stories from God.

Hausa Tales and Traditions: An English Translation of "Tatsuniyoyi Na Hausa". Originally compiled by Frank Edgar. translated and edited by Neil Skinner. Vol. III. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1977.

Kasungu and Kaluluma Oral Traditions. Complied by Felix Msamba and David Killick. University of Arizona, Department of Anthropology. 1992.

Katoke, Israel K. The Making of the Karagwe Kingdom: Tanzanian History from Oral Traditions. Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1970. (Memorial AP H6762 A847 no.8)

Kimmel, Eric. Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock. New York: Holiday House, 1988.

Pre-kindergarten- 3rd grade. (A trickster tale where Anansi uses a magic rock to steal food from his friends in the forest. Useful for educators in explaining the African Diaspora, since the tale is still told in the Caribbean.)

---. Anansi Goes Fishing. New York: Holiday House, 1991.

Pre-kindergarten- 3rd grade. (Another trickster tale, with the implied moral lesson about the pitfalls of telling lies. Illustrations give the book a Western setting.)

Knappert, Jan. The Aquarian guide to African mythology. Ilustrations by Elizabeth Knappert. Wellingborough, UK: The Aquarian Press, 1990.

---. Bantu Myths and other tales. Collected and translated by Jan Knappert. Leiden: Brill, 1977.

---. Epic poetry in Swahili and other African languages. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1983.

---. Four centuries of Swahili verse: a literary history and anthropology. London: Heinemann, 1979.

McDermott, Gerald. Ananse, the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti. New York: Henry Holt, 1972.

Elementary school. Picture book that uses Asante art forms to tell the story of Kwaku Ananse and his six sons.

Maddern, Eric. The Fire Children: A West African Creation Tale. Dial, 1993.

A retelling of an Akan creation myth of the world and its people.

Miller-Lachmann, Lyn. Our Family, Our Friends, Our World: An nnotated Guide to Significant Multicultural Books for Children and Teenagers. (Providence: R.R. Bowker, 1992)

Very useful guide to multicultural materials for schoolchildren.

Mofolo, Thomas. Chaka. translated by Daniel Kunene. London: Heinemann, 1981.

Niane, Djibril Tamsir. Sundiata: an epic of old Mali. translated by G.D. Pickett. London, Longman.

Nunn, Jessie Alford. African Folk Tales. illustrated by Ernest Crichlow. New York: Funk and Wagnalis, 1969.

The River That Went to the Sky: Twelve Tales by African Storytellers. selected and edited by Mary Medlicott. Illustrated by Ademola Akintola. New York: Kingfisher, 1995.

Scheub, Harold. African oral narratives, proverbs, riddles, poetry and song. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1977.

---. The African Storyteller: stories from African oral traditions. (compiled by Harold Scheub) Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall//Hunt Publishing, 1990.

---. Bibliography of African oral narratives. Madison: African Studies Program, University of Wisconsin, 1971. (School of Library and Information Studies Library. 398 Sch 29b)

---. Enhancing Teaching Quality. [videorecording] Madison: Instructional Media Development Center, UW-Madison, 1994. (IMC Professional Stacks LB2331 E54 1994)

---. Meanings: manual for "The African Storyteller". Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt, 1994.

---. The Tongue is Fire: South African Storytellers and Apartheid. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1996.

---. The world and the word: tales and observations from the Xhosa oral tradition. Collected and edited , with an introduction, commentaries, and annotations by Harold Scheub. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992.

---. The Xhosa Ntsomi. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975.

Tales from Southern Africa. translated and retold by A.C. Jordan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973.

Troughton, Joanna. How Stories Came into the World: A Folktale from West Africa. Peter Bedrick, 1989.

Pre-kindergarten- 3rd grade. (Collection of six West African creation myths. Illustrated, with some nudity.)

Tutuola, Amos. Yoruba Folktales. African Bookm Collective, 1987.

Elementary-Middle school. (Includes seven Yoruba folktales.)

Washington, Donna. How Anansi Obtained the Sky God's Stories. Children's Press, 1991. 1 cassette.

Pre-kindergarten - 3rd grade. (A wordless book and audio cassette package that makes the Anansi stories accessible to younger children.)

Westley, David. Hausa Oral Traditions: an annotated bibliography. Boston: African Studies Center (Boston University), 1991. (Memorial DT19.8 B6 no.154)

Video Resources