A Hidden Gem

Stories are meant to be told. Please accept my invitation to tell these stories. That is why they exist! Read them, learn them, change them, and , most important of all, enjoy them!

It is not often that you find a collection of tales that doesn't have one or two "duds". A Pride of African Tales by Donna L. Washington is an unexpected gem because every single one of the stories is read aloud quality. It is a phenomenal collection of 6 folk tales from central Africa. The stories come from Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, Nigeria, and Cameroon, and they reflect a wide variety of cultures and traditions. There is a great map in the front of the book that you can use to show children where these stories come from. Donna L. Washington is a professional storyteller, and she brings each story to life. James Ransome’s dynamic watercolor illustrations add character to the already ear-catching tales. Because Ransome conducted detailed research about the context of each story, the reader can be sure that the character’s outfits and the stories settings are realistically depicted.  Ransome is both a Coretta Scott King and Coretta Scott King Honor Award winner.

Each story follows a different format. There is a trickster tale, a pourquoi tale, a cautionary tale, a tale of anger and forgiveness, a taboo story, and a fable. The author included an introductory note about each type of story, and also at the end of the book she included information about where she found the stories. I found this extra information very interesting and helpful. For example I learned that a pourquoi tale is a story that is told to explain why the world is the way it is. This makes sense to me because I know that pourquoi is the French word for why. I also learned that one of the stories, “The Wedding Basket” may never have been recorded on paper before, and that another story, “The Roof of Leaves”, is based off an actual event. Each story had a moral or lesson connected to it.

The first story “Anansi’s Fishing Expedition” is one of many stories about the trickster Anansi that are told all over Africa and the Caribbean. I remember hearing a story about Anansi as a spider when I was a child. I thought that because there are so many different stories about this classic African folk character, it might be cool to have a mini-unit on them and have my students read different Anansi stories from different areas. Although many things change, the one thing that seems consistent is that Anansi is a trickster, and that he tends to get caught in funny situations because of his actions. In this story Anansi is a man who wants to get money for fish without actually having to do all the work of catching the fish. He enlists Onini to help him with his enterprise, but Onini is not as dumb as he pretends to be. Read the story to find out how Onini turns lazy Anansi into a honest hard worker.

The next story, “The Boy Who Wanted the Moon” is a pourquoi tale that explains why monkeys are in the world. It is a story about a spoiled prince and his foolish father who tries to steal the moon from the gods. “Shansa Mutongo Shima” is a very popular tale that teaches readers why “What lies inside a person is much more important than what you see on the outside. You must take your time, watch, and listen before you make your final decision about a person.”

“The Roof of Leaves” is a story based on a real incident that happened in the Congo when a man and wife got mad at each other, and the quick thinking that stopped them from making a huge mistake. My favorite tale, “The Wedding Basket,” is about a rich man who lost an incredible woman because he did not respect her. However, he learns from his mistakes and the story ends with him passing on these words of wisdom to his children, “You must respect people’s dreams. You see, my children, anyone who cannot respect others is not worthy of respect himself.”  The last tale, “The Talking Skull” would be amusing to elementary school children because it tells a story about a man who talks too much, and how he makes a fool of himself.

All of these stories are relatively short (4-6 pages) and carry great lessons with them. Upon further research, I discovered that Donna Washington has a website, www.dlwstoryteller.com, off of which you can buy CDs of her stories. She also visits many schools and tells stories in person. I think this would be an incredible opportunity for students to have. It doesn’t look like she is in Virginia too much in the next year, and I couldn’t find out how much it would cost to have her come to your school, but it is definitely a resource worth knowing about.