Week 7 Essay: African Stories from Lang's Fairy Books

This week I read the unit called African Stories from Lang'sFairy Books from the African Traditions reading options. I read this because our teacher, Laura Gibbs, recommended the unit to me. I enjoyed this unit. The unit is basically three different stories. The first two stories were basically about tricksters. Those stories were great to see how clever the characters were. The last story is about a hero and his journey. He defeats many powerful giants on his way but in the end he finds a huge giant that he is unable to defeat and the giant cannot defeat him. They both end up getting invited to live in the clouds with the gods. This was a great story. I really like heroes so this story kept me entertained. I actually stayed up late just to read this story. I would say this story was my favorite of them all. I did really enjoy all of the stories though. This is a great unit for this class. Each story is easy to read and just long enough to not make the stories short which would cause there to be a lot of stories. I would definitely recommend for other students to read this unit. There were not many big surprises. I expected the stories to be good. I was glad this turned out to be such a great unit though. I have never heard of any of these stories so that also kept the unit interesting. I liked the length of this unit as well. Other units have been a little bit longer which makes them harder to read the whole unit at once. This unit is short enough to read all at once. Overall, this is a great unit and I am glad I was recommended to read it. 

 

Picture From Africa

Web Source: Welcome 2 Africa

Week 7 Storytelling: The Boys and the Farmer

There was once this little boy and his older brother. They loved wonder out of town to go hunt. They found this field where they could hunt small game all they wanted. After they got their fair share they would play games like “who could shoot that bird flying.” They did this day after day for many weeks. After a while the small game started to disappear so the boys started looking farther into the field. They found a flock of chickens and decided to take one a day so that the flock would not disappear. The owner of the chickens realized his chickens were disappearing. He decided to watch over his chickens the next day. He found the two brothers coming after his chickens and told them that they owed him for the chickens they had already taken. The two brothers had nothing to give but the farmer really liked the boy’s leather vest. The vests were not big enough for the farmer. So he told them that if they made him a vest he would let them go. The oldest brother told the farmer he would need some leather to make the vest. The younger brother said he was hungry and that they would not make them until they got some food. The farmer took the two boys home and killed a cow. The farmer made some steaks for the boys and gave them the cow hide to use for the vest. The boys ate until they felt full. Then the oldest brother started making the vest. When he was done the farmer was very pleased and wanted to try it on right away. The oldest brother helped him put it on but told him to stay in the sun for the rest of the day to let the cowhide cure. The boys headed home as fast as they could and the farmer stayed outside in the sun the rest of the day. By the end of the day the cowhide had shrunk and turned to leather. The vest shrunk so much that the farmer was uncomfortable and could not get it off. He knew the boys had tricked him into giving them food for a vest that would cause him pain. He went home and his wife cut the vest off of him. He knew that he had to find a way to get back at the boys and he started plotting. 

Flock of Chickens

Web Source: Wikimedia

Author’s Note: This story is based off of the story Adventuresof a Jackal from African Stories from Lang's Fairy Books. The original story is about a jackal and a hedgehog that trick a panther into killing a cow in exchange for a pair of shoes. They all eat the cow then the jackal makes the shoes and tells the panther to leave them in the sun all day. The shoes get hard and hurt the panther’s feet. The jackal and hedgehog run away while the panther is unable to follow them. I thought I would make the story about humans instead of animals and what you have read is what I came up with. I hope you liked it.

 Bibliography: African Stories from Andrew Lang's Fairy Books. Web Source: UN-Textbook

Week 7 Reading Diary: African Stories from Lang's Fairy Books

Motikatika: A wife got sick and would not eat but the pure honey this took the husband 4 trips to get right. After he went and got her water. When she finally got better he took her spot and told her to bring him water. She took 4 trips as well. On her 4^th trip she encountered an Ogre and told him he could eat her son if he didn’t eat her. The son was a magician and over heard what his mother said. He planned to outwit her.

Motikatika (cont.): The Ogre came for Moti but Moti consulted his bones that told him how to get out of being eaten everytime. In the end the Ogre takes Moti’s dad by mistake and eats him. The wife is upset but Moti tells her that it was his father’s fault that she met the Ogre in the first place. So it is he who should be eaten.

Jackal and Spring: the animals had to dig a well to get water. The Jackal didn’t want to dig so the animals decided he shouldn’t have water. He tricked the rabbit and got water. The Jackal tricked the little hare. The Tortoise was able to outsmart the Jackal and keep him from the well.

Adventures of a Jackal: the Jackal tricks a panther into killing a cow to make shoes for the panther. They ate the cow together but the jackal made the panther wait a while before wearing the shoes. They left while the panther waited and the shoes ended up hurting the panther’s feet. He got help from partridges to get the shoes off and headed after the jackal.

Adventures of a Jackal (cont.): the panther invites all the jackal to a feast like the old man says. He catches the bad jackal’s tail but he cuts it off and gets away. He is then told to go to the melon field to catch the jackal without a tail but the bad jackal had made all the jackals lose their tail. So the panther gives up to go find dinner. 

Adventures of a Jackal (end):The Jackal goes to a Sheppard to buy a sheep. The Sheppard tricks the Jackal and sells him a greyhound in sheeps clothing. The Jackal goes home and the hedgehog tries to warn him that it is a greyhound but the Jackal doesn’t listen. The hedgehog leaves and the greyhound kills the jackal.

Adventures of Jackal's Eldest Son: one son is friends with a hyena and they find a cloak. They fought over who should get the cloak. They went to the lion and asked him how they should settle hit and he said whoever rings the bell at the mosque first at dawn should get it. The hyena stayed up all night and took off at the first sight of dawn. The jackal ran the opposite way to never be seen again. He come across a lion and hyena. They go to find dinner and the lion isn’t happy with the way the hyena would split up the dinner. The Jackal gives a better response but leaves the lion when he sees two hunters behind him. 

Adventures of Jackal's Eldest Son (cont.): He escapes the hunters and runs into his father’s friend the hedgehog.   They planned to get some butter from the farmer. The Jackal tricked the hedgehog into thinking the farmer was coming but he wasn’t. The jackal hid the butter and didn’t share it with the hedgehog. The hedgehog got upset with this and tricked the jackal by inviting him to a feast. The jackal showed and the hedgehog said that the guest brought dogs and mules which scared the jackal. The hedgehog said he would hide him under some sacks. While under them the hedgehog rolled a huge stone over him and killed him.

Adventures of Younger Son of Jackal: the youngest jackal got a sheep to help him with his crops. The sheep drew the water and he poured the water. When the crops yielded the jackal tried to take 7 parts to the sheep’s 1 part. The sheep went and got the greyhound who then scared the jackal into giving the rightful share of 7 to the sheep and keeping 1 for himself.

 

Hassebu:  A boy tries many trades but does not like them. One day firewood gatherers take them with him. He finds a huge honey cave underground. They decide to have him scoop the honey for him. After many months they make it to the bottom and they leave him at the bottom so they could split his share. 

Hassebu (cont.): He makes it out of the cave and follows a path to a house with a golden door. This was the king of snakes house. They woke him from the king’s bed. The king offered for him to stay a little while with him. The sultan became sick and the only way for him to live was by the death of the king of snakes. Hassebu gets beaten by the Vizir to tell where the king lived and the king made a deal with him. The king lived Hassebu became a great physician and the Vizir died.

Heart of a Monkey: A monkey was eating over the sea when a shark swam up and asked for some fruit from the tree. The monkey helped him and they did this for weeks and shared stories. The shark then tricks the monkey into going home with him. Once they were a good ways into their trip the shark tells the monkey he really brought him because the only thing that can save his sultan is the heart of a monkey. The monkey tricks the shark by telling him he leaves his heart at home. The shark takes the monkey back and the monkey starts to tell a story.

The Heart of a Monkey: The Washerman’s Donkey:  A hare tricks a fat donkey into going to he house of the lion by saying she is to marry him. The lion tries to kill the donkey but the donkey fights back and gets away.

The Heart of a Monkey: The Washerman’s Donkey (cont.): The hare tricks the donkey into coming back to the lion after he is well. He kills the donkey and has the hare cook it. He told the hare that he wanted just the heart. The hare ate the heart and convinced the lion there was no heart in the first place. The story was over and the monkey sent the shark on his way.

Makoma: He asks the greatest men of his village who will go into the pool and slay the alligators and none would. So he does and gives himself the name Makoma meaning the greater. He leaves and meets a giant making mountains.  Makoma defeats the giant and takes him as a slave. He met another giant and defeated him as well and made him his slave as well. He finds a third giant and defeats him as well and makes him a slave. 

Makoma (cont.): he meets a flame spirit and challenges him. He defeats him and places him in the bag with the others. He also absorbs the powers of those he defeats. He finds a clearing that he likes and decides to make a house there. He has the giants help him and while he is gone with two of the giants a third is attacked and tied to a tree by a man from the river. This kept happening for the next couple of days to the giant that stayed behind. So Makoma stayed behind one day. He defeated the river giant by killing him. 

Makoma (end): Makoma could not rest until he fought with Sakatirina, He had to leave his 4 giants behind. He returned their powers and left. He traveled far and found Sakatirina who is a super tall giant. Neither could defeat each other in battle. So Mulimo the Great Spirit took them to live in the clouds.