In “Men Deceive Women” we have both a parable about marriage and a conversation about the terms of the tale told about pairing off. The groom-snake, both seductive and treacherous, captures the perils of marriage for women. Once again there is an emphasis on the double nature of language. In this case a “sweet tongue” has an effect both hypnotic and destructive. Its lies ensnare, entrap, and eventually prove fatal.
“Know Your Relatives or Else You’ll Be Mistaken for a Slave” gives us a tale about betrayal and liberation. The hero, like his counterparts in many cultures, falls victim to a servant or slave and frees himself through song or story. By telling his troubles, he reveals the truth about his rival. The trading of items of clothing for the sake of survival is a theme found in Helen Bannerman’s The Story of Little Black Sambo (1899), set in India, in which the boy gives up his red jacket, blue trousers, purple shoes, and green umbrella to pacify and vanquish a set of ferocious tigers.
Finally, in “Which of the Three Men Was the Most Powerful?” we have an example of a dilemma tale encoded with some social context. Fikry-Atallah reports that she and her assistants believed that the tale had been “badly told,” but they decided to preserve it in print because it provided a “rare example of a story in riddle form.” That the tale is unmediated and unedited makes it all the more interesting as an example of “authentic” folklore.
Mona Fikry-Atallah gives us story and context in compact form. For more expansive stories with a fuller elaboration of the social world in which the tales are told, Harold Scheub’s African Oral Narratives: Proverbs, Riddles, Poetry and Song and The African Storyteller: Stories from African Oral Traditions are foundational, as are his many other published volumes.
The tales below are all adapted from: Mona Fikry-Atallah, “Wala Oral History and Wa’s Social Realities,” in African Folklore, ed. Richard Dorson, 237–53.
The frontispiece of African Myths Together with Proverbs, published in 1923, shows a storytelling audience in an unidentified setting in Africa. Collected and adapted by African American historian Carter G. Woodson, the tales and proverbs in the anthology were intended for American schoolchildren.
THE FILIAL SON
Told by a teacher named Mumuni, about forty years old
Here is my story also. Pay attention here. My story has no songs.
There lived once a wicked chief. Nobody liked him, because of his wickedness. He was wicked to old men and women. By pretending to be kind he tried to be popular with all the young men who lived in that country. When the chief won over the young men, they all liked him. One day, the chief called all the young men and told them, “My friends, don’t you see?”
They asked, “What?”
“Don’t you see the old men of this country?”
They asked, “What?”
“You should kill all of them. Everyone should kill his father.”
Ai! (That they should all kill their fathers!)
As a result, everybody with an old father brought him to be killed. This one went and brought his father to be killed, the other went and brought his father to be killed. They killed all the old men, leaving only one. He was the father of a man who said no.
“Why should the chief kill all the old men and why should I send my old father to be killed?” He got down and went and dug a large hole and concealed it nicely. He sent his father there, where he had dug. He fetched wood and put it across the hole and then covered it with soil, making a small hole for air to pass through. At that time, they had finished killing all the old men. When the chief had executed them all, he called all the young men. “My friends, we have now finished killing all our old men. This is a cow I am giving to you. I am so happy we have got rid of all these old men, so go and kill the cow. When you have killed the cow, cut the best part of the meat and bring it to me. If you don’t bring it, you yourselves are not safe.” (That is all right!) Eh!
The young men rushed out and slaughtered the cow. Which is the best part of the meat of the cow? They were worried. They went and cut the liver and sent it to him. He asked whether or not that was the best part of the meat. They answered yes. They added part of the bile. He said that wasn’t the best part of the meat and that they should go and find it quickly. The people became more worried. Every night the one young man secretly took food to his father. One day he took food to his father, who asked about the news of the town.
He said, “My father, now we are suffering. When we killed all the old men, the chief gave us a cow to go and kill. When we killed the cow, he said we must find both the sweetest and bitterest part of the meat and bring it to him. That if we do not bring them, we are not safe ourselves. This is what is worrying us.”
The old man laughed, but asked him if he knew the sweet part of the meat. He said no. He again asked if he did not know the bitterest part. He said no.
“The sweetest and bitterest part is the tongue. When you go, cut the tongue and send it to him and say that the sweetest part of the meat is also the bitterest.”
The man rushed home while all the people sat down, undecided about what to do. If something had not happened, they might have thrown the whole meat away and run away.
When the boy arrived, he said, “My friends, take the tongue of the cow in.” They cut the tongue for him, and he took it to the chief’s palace. He went and threw it down and said, “Chief, see the sweet part of the meat and the bitterest part also.”
The chief sat down quietly and finally said, “You did not kill your father. Speak the truth. You have not killed your father.”
He said, “It is the truth, I didn’t kill him. When all the other young men were killing their fathers, I went and hid mine.” He said, “You are the son of a wise old man. The sweetest and bitterest part of man is the tongue. As for that, all these young men are big fools. Why should somebody send his father to be killed? But if you want the sweetest part of the meat, find the tongue. Were it not for your tongue, you would not have an enemy; and it is also because of your tongue that you will not have a friend.”
That is the end of my story.
MEN DECEIVE WOMEN
Narrated by Awusara, a young woman about twenty-five years old
Once there was a grown woman, but she refused to marry. She was offered many men, but she refused (“Then she was a prostitute!”), and roamed about. A python (“Woo!”) went and bathed himself and was sparkling like that. He became a black young man and went to her. The young woman said that she had seen her dear husband, yoo! He, too, said that he had also found his dear wife, yoo! They decided to give him water so that he could wash, but he refused and said that he had already washed before coming. They gave him a house to stay in. They went into that house. Soon after, he turned into a python and stretched all around the house. Then he took his mouth and put it at the doorway. Then he went and held the woman’s legs. And the woman said, “My mother, my mother! The man spoke lies.” (Repeated several times.)
The man swallowed the woman. My mother-in-law! The child is telling a lie. The child is lying, how can a man swallow a woman? And, yet, he was swallowing her. He swallowed her up to her thighs, and she said again, “My mother, my mother! The man spoke lies!”
He kept on swallowing until he reached the stomach. She cried again, “My mother, my mother! The man spoke lies!”
He continued to swallow, and it was not long before he reached the chest. She cried again, “My mother, my mother! The man spoke lies!”
He reached the woman’s head, broke it off, and threw it in the house. Then he went out into the yard and kept on crawling, kpari, kpari,1 here and there.
The following day dawned and the sun was high up, and it became hot, very hot. They called and called and called, but it was for nothing. They opened the door and found only the woman’s head there.
And that one ends like that, too.
A conversation followed this tale, concerning its meaning:
A man: What is the meaning of the song?
A wo
man: As the man wants to marry a woman, he will keep on deceiving her until she’s convinced, and as soon as they marry, the man will show his true character.
The man: So sweet that his tongue is able to talk!
Another woman: You keep on giving her promises but as soon as you marry her, you fail to keep them.
The man: Is the woman then foolish (for marrying that man, the python)?
The other woman: Not at all! When a man woos a girl, he tells her sweet words. After marrying her, the man changes.
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1 kpari: a word meant to convey the slithering manner in which a python moves
KNOW YOUR RELATIVES OR ELSE YOU’LL BE MISTAKEN FOR A SLAVE
It is true! A man and his wife went and settled at a place like Kampala.1 They had a child and a slave child. The man died but his senior brother was living in Wa. The man always used to say, “Hai! Always try to know the difference between your child and the slave boy.” Yaa! After his death, his wife sent word to his senior brother in Wa saying that her son and the slave boy were coming. The mother bathed the child. She dressed him in shorts, a smock, and a hat. Then she gave the slave boy water in a gourd to carry.
While they were walking, the boy sighed. “Uuhu!” the slave asked, “What?” The boy said he was thirsty. The slave boy said, “Uhuu! If you give me your smock, I will give you water to drink. If you don’t then you won’t have the water.”
The boy took off his smock and gave it to him, and the slave boy, who put it on, gave him the water. They walked until they reached Nodzeli-boo, the valley. The boy said, “Ah! I am thirsty.” The slave said, “Aah! Give me your shorts and I will also give you water.” When he got the shorts and put them on, the slave boy gave the boy water to drink.
They continued walking until they reached Dr. Faar’s house, in Wa. The boy again said, “Ehu!” The slave asked, “What?” The boy said, “I am thirsty.” The slave said “Uuh! Take off your hat for me to wear or else I won’t give you water to drink.”
The boy gave him the hat and got the water. As soon as the boy finished with the water, the slave told him, “Umm! Hold this gourd.”
Yaa! When they entered the house of the father’s relatives, the child’s uncle was sitting down. He told the slave to come and sit by his side, but he pushed away his own brother’s son. Hai!
They farmed maize, and partridges would come and peck at the seeds. The following morning, the son was given cold food and a piece of firewood. He put them on his shoulder and went to the farm. As soon as he entered the farm he said, “Haa!” to scare the birds away.
Haa! Haa! Don’t eat these things, don’t eat!
The day my mother died, yaa!
They turned their real son into a slave, yaa!
But they made the slave their child, yaa!
They turned him into their son!
My father, wo! The day he died, woo! The elephant died.
He made a fire and then climbed up to the top of the shed. Then he took this thing and knocked on it.
Haa! Haa! Don’t eat these things, don’t eat!
The day my mother died, yaa!
They turned their real son into a slave, yaa!
But they made the slave their child, yaa!
They turned him into their son!
My father, wo! The day he died, woo! The elephant died.
He prepared his food and sat down until evening and then he returned home. The following day he was beaten to get up and he went again to the farm. He was again given cold food, firewood, and told to go. When he got to the farm, he opened his mouth:
Haa! Haa! Don’t eat these things, don’t eat!
The day my mother died, yaa!
They turned their real son into a slave, yaa!
But they made the slave their child, yaa!
They turned him into their son!
My father, wo! The day he died, woo! The elephant died.
After making his fire, he opened his mouth:
Haa! Haa! Don’t eat these things, don’t eat!
The day my mother died, yaa!
They turned their real son into a slave, yaa!
But they made the slave their child, yaa!
They turned him into their son!
My father, wo! The day he died, woo! The elephant died.
Hai! An old woman had gone to pick saalung2 and sheanut seeds. When she stopped, she heard the boy. Then she went and told the uncle and his senior brother. She said, “To prove that what I have told you is true, you should wake him up early tomorrow morning, and then one of you should follow him and hide.” The next day, yaa! They woke up the boy but only after his uncle had already gone to the farm. As soon as the boy got to the farm, he started his song:
Haa! Haa! Don’t eat these things, don’t eat!
The day my mother died, yaa!
They turned their real son into a slave, yaa!
But they made the slave their child, yaa!
They turned him into their son!
My father, wo! The day he died, woo! The elephant died.
He went and made his fire.
Haa! Haa! Don’t eat these things, don’t eat!
The day my mother died, yaa!
They turned their real son into a slave, yaa!
But they made the slave their child, yaa!
They turned him into their son!
My father, wo! The day he died, woo! The elephant died.
Ei! The senior brother carried him and rushed home. He brought out the slave and beat him up here and there, threw him on the ground, and told him to go to the farm. They took off all his clothes.
Because of this, if you have any relatives somewhere, try to know them; otherwise, one day you will be taken for a slave. (“You are telling lies!”—“It is true!”) I have finished; my story is finished.
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1 Kampala: today the capital and largest city in Uganda
2 saalung: vegetables
WHICH OF THE THREE MEN WAS THE MOST POWERFUL?
This is my riddle. My story! This one does not have a song. There were three young men. They roamed together and were friends. They each had lovers who lived about as far away as Accra. They had to cross water to go and visit them. One of them took a mirror and looked into it. He combed his hair and exclaimed, “Wh! You, my friends, I see our lovers lying there dead.” The second one said, “Eh! See? I have this medicine which will be able to take us to our lovers.” The third one said that he had medicine, a wisp, that could wake up their lovers. With the aid of the medicine they were able to reach Accra within minutes. Yaa! They had reached it. They pointed the wisp at their lovers and one of them asked them, “What were you doing? Come out and get dressed. Come out! What allowed you to do such mean things to us?”
Which of the three men was the most powerful? The one with the mirror looked into it and saw the girls dead, but could not go to them. The other one had medicine that could wake them up, but he himself couldn’t get there. Which of the three was the greatest one? You show the one who was the most powerful. (“But it is the one who owned the medicine.” “Ai! The owner of the mirror is powerful because he could see them, but he could not get to them. The owner of the wisp is the one.”) Responsibility, Yaa! God says a person is responsible for himself. The Partridge says that it blames its killer more than the one who scared it. The one who saw their lovers was the most powerful. Because of that, the owner of the mirror is the one. Had he not seen them, would they have known that their lovers had died?
Artist Carrie Mae Weems, born in 1953, interpreted the legend of the flying Africans in Sea Islands Series, a group of landscape photographs and text panels exploring Gullah cultural identity. “Untitled (Boone Plantation)” combines a contemporary photograph of slave cabins at Boone Plantation in South Carolina with a text based on testimony about flying Africans collected by the Georgia Writers’ Project in the 1930s.
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nbsp; PART I
DEFIANCE AND DESIRE: FLYING AFRICANS AND MAGICAL INSTRUMENTS
If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it.
—TONI MORRISON, Song of Solomon
Like all charter narratives, tales about flying Africans set down collective beliefs and aspirations, in this case about escaping oppressive conditions, reuniting with kin, and returning home. Stories about literal flight from punishing labor in the fields can be found everywhere in the diaspora, with two different narrative twists on that miraculous feat. In the first, newly arrived Africans take one look at the conditions facing them in the New World and turn their backs on slavery. Dismayed and revolted, they take wing and fly back across the ocean. In the other, an African shaman or some other charismatic figure chants verses to physically depleted slaves laboring in the fields and enables them to fly. Like the lead bird in a migratory formation, he brings them back home.
Some versions of the story give us nuanced variations on the theme. Virginia Hamilton’s “The People Could Fly” includes the following preamble before recounting the flight of slaves from a plantation: “They say the people could fly. Say that long ago in Africa, some of the people knew magic. And they would walk up on the air like climbing up on a gate. And they flew like blackbirds over the fields. Black, shiny wings flappin against the blue up there” (Hamilton 1985, 166). Hamilton’s slaves, who left their wings in Africa (the slave ships were too crowded to take them along), recover their power to fly by chanting “magic words” that sound like “whispers and sighs.” Language—charged, incantatory, and active—becomes a tool of collective liberation.
The Annotated African American Folktales Page 17