African-American folktales
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African-American folktales are the storytelling and oral history of enslaved African Americans during the 1700s-1900s. Prevalent themes in African-American folktales include tricksters, life lessons, heartwarming tales, and slavery. African Americans created folktales that spoke about the hardships of slavery and told stories of folk spirits that could outwit their slaveholders and defeat their enemies. These folk stories gave hope to enslaved people that folk spirits would liberate them from slavery.[1][2][3][4][5] One of these heroes that they looked up to was the charming High John the Conqueror, who was a cunning trickster against his slave masters. He often empowered newly freed slaves, saying that if they needed him, his spirit would be in a local root.[1][2][3] Other common figures in African-American folktales include Anansi, Brer Rabbit, and Uncle Monday. Many folktales are unique to African-American culture, while others are influenced by African, European, and Native American tales.[6]
Overview
African-American folktales are a storytelling tradition based in Africa containing a rich oral tradition that expanded as Africans were brought to the Americas as slaves.[7][8] In general, most African-American Folktales fall into one of eight categories: tales of origin, tales of trickery and trouble, tales of triumph over natural or supernatural evils, comic heartwarming tales, tales of God and the devil, tales teaching life lessons, tales of ghosts and spirits, and tales of slaves and their slave-owners.[9] Many revolve around anthropomorphic animals with the same morals and shortcomings as humans do, which makes the stories relatable. New tales tell of the African experience in the Americas, however, many tales still maintain the traditional style and tell of their African roots. Although many of the original stories evolved since Africans were brought to the Americas as slaves, their meaning and life lessons have remained the same.[10]
Themes
African-American tales center around beginnings and transformations whether focused on a character, event, or creation of the world.[6] Some examples of origin stories include "How Jackal Became an Outcast" and "Terrapin's Magic Dipper and Whip", which respectively explain the solitary nature of jackals and why turtles have shells.[6]
Trickery and trouble
Tricksters in folk stories are commonly amoral characters, both human and non-human animals, who 'succeed' based on deception and taking advantage of other's weaknesses.[11] They tend to use their wits to resolve conflict and/or achieve their goals. Two examples of African-American tricksters are Brer Rabbit and Anansi.[11]
Tricksters in African-American folktales take a comedic approach and contain an underlying theme of inequality, compared to other folktales that label their tricksters as menaces.[11] The National Humanities Center notes that trickster stories "contain serious commentary on the inequities of existence in a country where the promises of democracy were denied to a large portion of the citizenry, a pattern that becomes even clearer in the literary adaptations of trickster figures".[11]
African-American folktales don't always contain an actual 'trickster' but a theme of trickery tactics. For example, Charles Chesnutt collected a series of stories and created The Conjure Woman (1899).[11] One of the trickster's tactics in the story is "how an enslaved man is spared being sent from one plantation to another by having his wife, who is a conjure woman, turn him into a tree...the trickery works until a local sawmill selects that particular tree to cut".[11] In other tales the personified animals try to imitate the trickster, however, it backfires on them.[12] An example of this is in Crawling Into the Elephant's Belly, in which Yawarri, an anteater, follows Anansi, the trickster, and blackmails him to be brought to the king's elephants. Yawarri's family is starving, and he is upset at Anansi because of all the elephant meat Anansi is eating that is the property of the king. After jumping the wall Anansi instructs Yawarri on how to get inside the elephant, telling him only to take a small piece of meat from the elephant so the king will not notice.[13][14] However, since Yawarri is starving, he eats at the inside of the elephant until it is dead, and as the sun rises the king finds him in the belly of the beast and kills him.[13]This shows how an ordinary citizen can get wrapped up in the scheme of a trickster. Other tales that display this theme are "Why They Name the Stories for Anansi" and "A License to Steal", although there are many more.[12]
Comic heartwarming tales
Comic and heartwarming African-American folktales “stimulate the imagination with wonders, and are told to remind us of the perils and the possibilities”.[15] The stories are about heroes, heroines, villains, and fools. One story, The Red Feather, is a response to the intertwining of cultures, ending with heroes bringing forth gifts.[16] Rabbit Rides Wolf is a story that represents the amalgamation of African and Creek descent where a hero emerges during a time of conflict.[16]
Teaching life lessons
African folklore is a means to hand down traditions and duties through generations. Stories are often passed down orally at gatherings by groups of children and elders. This type of gathering was known as Tales by Midnight and contained cultural lessons that prepared children for their future.[17] These anthropomorphic animals made the stories compelling to the young children and included singing and dancing or themes such as greediness, honesty, and loyalty.[17]
One example used by generations for African children is the Tale of The Midnight Goat Thief which originated in Zimbabwe. The Midnight Goat Thief is a tale of misplaced trust. A hare betrays the trust of a loyal baboon, framing him for the death of a goat. After Baboon's friend Jackal hears about what happened to him, he tries to replicate what Hare did to Baboon to get revenge. However, hare outwits Jackal and figures out a way to counter his actions. Then as the sun rises Jackal is caught red-handed with the blood he was trying to frame Hare with! The moral of the story is to be loyal and honest, and not copy the ways of the cunning, as they may outwit you. [18]
Ghosts and spirits
African-American tales of ghosts and spirits were commonly told of a spook or “haint”
Slavery
Although many slaves during this time could not read or write they could recite folktales as a way to communicate information with each other. Giving each other vital information that would help them survive.[9][22] In African-American tales, slavery often uses rhetoric that can seem uncommon to the modern era as the language passed down through generations deviates from the standard for racial narrative. When having to face the reality of slavery, African-American folktales became a means to cope with the reality of the situation, and ultimately record their history of slavery in America.[23] An example of a work that conveys the African-American slave experience in America is The Conjure Woman. This book of tales deals with racial identity and was written by the African-American author, Charles W. Chesnutt, from the perspective of a freed slave.[24]
Chesnutt's tales represent the struggles freed slaves faced during the post-war era in the South. The author's tales provide a pensive perspective on the challenges of being left behind.[25]
Chesnutt's language surrounding African-American folklore derived from the standards of the racial narrative of his era. By using vernacular language, Chesnutt was able to deviate from the racial norms and formulate a new, more valorized message of folk heroes. Chesnutt writes "on the other side" of standard racial narratives, effectively refuting them by evoking a different kind of "racial project" in his fictional work.”[24]
God and the Devil
African-American folktales show how the world was formed and the foundations of morality. Supernatural conflicts between God and the Devil are often the main focus of these tales, however, man versus man, and slave versus master are also popular disputes. There is typically a "negotiator" in these tales who is actively trying to persuade "the judge" to side with their position.[26][27] However, if the judge, or God, does not like the outcome of the situation they will often invoke a countermeasure to bring order to the situation. In these tales, the God, or gods, are inherently good and do not invoke wrath upon the people, even if the subject veers off the path of righteousness.[27] Additionally, there is often a transaction between God and man in these tales, one in which God is willing to help man, but only if the man is "offering sacrifices and performing rites and ceremonies in a manner acceptable to the god".[26][27]
An example of one of these tales is Never Seen His Equal. The initial dialogue of this tale discusses how only man has seen his equal, but God has not. It then goes on to describe how the devil is in opposition to God and, in Genesis, manifests himself in the form of a serpent to trick Adam and Eve in the Garden. This tells the story of the fall of man through Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit when tempted by the serpent, and how women now have to have pain in childbirth and men have to work for survival.[28]
High John the Conqueror
Flying Africans
Sukey and The Mermaid
In African-American folklore, there is a story about a girl named Sukey meeting a mermaid named Mama Jo. Mama Jo in the story helps and protects Sukey and financially supports her by giving her gold coins. This story comes from the belief in Simbi spirits in West-Central Africa that came to the United States during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. In Africa, Simbi nature spirits protect and provide riches to their followers. In West-Central Africa, there are folk stories of people meeting mermaids. Among the Gullah Geechee people in the Carolina Lowcountry and Sea Islands, there is a children's story called Sukey and the Mermaid written by Robert D. San Souci. In the African Diaspora, there are Afro-American folk stories of a little girl meeting a mermaid. During the era of slavery, Simbi folk stories in enslaved black communities provided hope from enslavement. It was believed that Simbi spirits help guide freedom seekers (runaway slaves) to freedom or to maroon communities during their escape from slavery on the Underground Railroad, because Simbi spirits reside in nature.[35][36][37]
Uncle Monday
In African-American folklore Uncle Monday was a conjurer, medicine man, and shapeshifter from Africa enslaved in the Southern United States. Uncle Monday escaped from slavery on the Underground Railroad and traveled through South Carolina and Georgia and made his final stop in Florida living amongst the Seminole people and Black Seminoles. He led a resistance movement against enslavement using his conjure powers. In the folktale, Seminole people and Black Seminoles beat their drums and Uncle Monday danced to the rhythms of Seminole and African music and turned into an alligator. After turning into an alligator, Uncle Monday went to the swamp waters and the other alligators followed him. In his alligator form, he and the others defeated the slaveholders. This folktale added historical accounts of the alliance between the Seminole people and Black Seminoles and their resistance movement against enslavement, and fictional stories about magic and shapeshifting.[38]
African-American folktale examples
- A Story, A Story – by Gale E. Hayley[39]
- Afiong the Proud Princess[40]
- Anansi the Spider – by Gerald McDermott[39]
- Big Liz[41]
- Boo Hag[41]
- Br'er Bear's House[41]
- Br'er Rabbit
- Finding the Green Stone – by Alice Walker[39]
- Gullah storytelling
- Hold Him, Tabb[41]
- I Know Moon Rise[41]
- I'm Coming Down Now[41]
- John Henry (folklore)|John Henry the Steel Driving Man[41]
- Mirandy and Brother Wind[39]
- Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters – by John Steptoe[39]
- Never Mind Them Watermelons[41]
- No King as God[40]
- Signifying monkey
- Sukey and the Mermaid – by Robert D. San Souci[39]
- The Baby Mouse and the Baby Snake[40]
- The Black Cat's Message[41]
- The Calabash Kids – from Tanzania[40]
- The Cheetah and the Lazy Hunter – from the Zulu[40]
- The Midnight Goat Thief[40]
- The Shrouded Horseman[41]
- The Talking Eggs – by Robert D. San Souci[39]
- The Value of a Person[40]
- Wait Until Emmet Comes[41]
- Why Dogs Chase Cats[41]
- Why Lizards Don't Sit[41]
- Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears – Verna Aardema[39]
- Why the Sky is Far Away – by Mary-Joan Gerson[39]
- Woe and Happiness[40]
See also
- Anansi
- Br'er Bear
- High John the Conqueror
- Hausa people
- J. Mason Brewer
- Nigeria
- Sanankuya
- Tanzania
- The Dozens
- Zulu people
- Slavery in the United States
- Treatment of the enslaved in the United States
References
- ^ JSTOR 41111803.
- ^ PMID 11612725.
- ^ ISBN 9780913666449.
- ISBN 9780871407566.
- ^ Powell, Timothy. "Ebos Landing". New Georgia Encyclopedia. University of Georgia Press. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-313-36295-8.
- ISBN 9780871407566.
- ^ Powell, Timothy. "Ebos Landing". New Georgia Encyclopedia. University of Georgia Press. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
- ^ a b "Recurring Themes of African American Folktales". Teachers Institute of Philadelphia. Retrieved 2023-11-08.
- ISBN 9780307803184.
- ^ a b c d e f "The Trickster in African American Literature, Freedom's Story, TeacherServe®, National Humanities Center". nationalhumanitiescenter.org. Retrieved 2018-11-07.
- ^ a b "Recurring Themes of African American Folktales". Teachers Institute of Philadelphia. Retrieved 2023-11-08.
- ^ a b Barker, Anne. "Library Guides: Linked ATU Tales: ATU 1- 299 Animal Tales". libraryguides.missouri.edu. Retrieved 2023-11-10.
- ISBN 978-0-394-52755-0.
- ISBN 9780871407535.
- ^ ISBN 978-0313362958.
- ^ a b "The Midnight Goat Thief « ANIKE FOUNDATION". anikefoundation.org. Retrieved 2018-11-12.
- ^ "African Folktale - The Midnight Goat Thief". Anike Foundation. Retrieved 2023-11-10.
- ISBN 978-1-935166-67-2.[page needed]
- ISBN 978-1-935166-66-5.[page needed]
- ISBN 978-1-935166-66-5.[page needed]
- ISSN 1448-2940.
- ISSN 1448-2940.
- ^ JSTOR 1512356.
- ^ Clough, Edward (Fall 2015). "In Search of Sunken Graves: Between Postslavery and Postplantation in Charles Chesnutt's Fiction". Southern Quarterly. 53 (1): 87–104.
- ^ a b "Recurring Themes of African American Folktales". Teachers Institute of Philadelphia. Retrieved 2023-11-08.
- ^ JSTOR 2784725.
- ISBN 978-0-394-52755-0.
- ISBN 9781479443062.
- ISBN 9780252094460.
- JSTOR 41111803.
- PMID 11612725.
- ISBN 9780913666449.
- ^ Powell, Timothy. "Ebos Landing". New Georgia Encyclopedia. University of Georgia Press. Retrieved 12 September 2021.
- S2CID 236647533. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
- ISBN 9781107024090.
- ^ Love, Zanny. "10 African and African American Folktales for Children". New York Public Library. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
- ISBN 157806385X.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "10 African and African American Folktales for Children". The New York Public Library. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "African Folktales « ANIKE FOUNDATION". anikefoundation.org. Archived from the original on 2018-11-05. Retrieved 2018-11-04.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "African-American folklore at Americanfolklore.net". americanfolklore.net. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
Further reading
- Coughlan, Margaret N., and Library of Congress. Children's Book Section. Folklore From Africa to the United States: an Annotated Bibliography. Washington: Library of Congress: for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off, 1976.
- Marsh, Vivian Costroma Osborne. Types And Distribution of Negro Folk-lore In America. [Berkeley], 1922.