This addition to the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library completes Roger Abrahams's masterful survey of taletelling in the black world by showing the vital forms African stories took as they entered the New World. These 107 tales come from the canefields of the antebellum South, the villages of Caribbean islands, and the streets of contemporary Philadelphia. Throbbing with life, they range from earthy comedy (in recounting the scandalous doings of tricksters Rabbit and Fox) to inventive "just-so" stories explaining why the world is the way it is, to moral fables about encounters between masters and slaves, kings and servants, black and white. Together, they robustly demonstrate the ways an uprooted people have drawn from the traditions of their past to fashion a life -- and with it, a whole new and vital culture -- in the New World.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Praise for African Folktales, the companion volume to Afro-American Folktales:
"Another masterful addition and accessible introduction to the captured myths of what the Mede call 'God's Chiefdom'....Sweeping across the continent as swiftly as a pair of enchanted Togo sandals, the juxtaposition of tribes and pacing of story lengths make for lively reading:"
Washington Post Book World
"Earthy and comedic...a rousing good read....I suspect Mr. Abrahams' book will be read a generation hence."
New York Times Book Review
"Another masterful addition and accessible introduction to the captured myths of what the Mede call 'God's Chiefdom'....Sweeping across the continent as swiftly as a pair of enchanted Togo sandals, the juxtaposition of tribes and pacing of story lengths make for lively reading:"
Washington Post Book World
"Earthy and comedic...a rousing good read....I suspect Mr. Abrahams' book will be read a generation hence."
New York Times Book Review
From the Inside Flap
This addition to the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library completes Roger Abrahams's masterful survey of taletelling in the black world by showing the vital forms African stories took as they entered the New World. These 107 tales come from the canefields of the antebellum South, the villages of Caribbean islands, and the streets of contemporary Philadelphia. Throbbing with life, they range from earthy comedy (in recounting the scandalous doings of tricksters Rabbit and Fox) to inventive "just-so" stories explaining why the world is the way it is, to moral fables about encounters between masters and slaves, kings and servants, black and white. Together, they robustly demonstrate the ways an uprooted people have drawn from the traditions of their past to fashion a life -- and with it, a whole new and vital culture -- in the New World.
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not really for children,
By A Customer
This review is from: Afro-American Folktales (Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library) (Paperback)
The collection is a set of tales that is most interesting in the context in which they were told. These were developed in an age and a culture in which storytelling played an important role in maintaining the cultural lineage of the teller and listeners, aheritage at risk as the members of the society were torn from family and sold into servitude, often never to be seen again. It should be no suprise that these tales deal with adult subject matter, such as sex, enslavement, brutality and death. If I were you I would read these tales before blithely passing them on to your pre-teen. Then again, children deal with such heavy material everyday wehen they watch TV, maybe reading about it in a historical context would be a benefit.
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