Black History Month Celebration 2020

“AFRICAN AMERICAN FOLKTALES”

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. New tales based on their experience in the Americas emerged as well as new characters and themes (e.g. birds and people with magical powers who could fly away.) In general, most African-American Folktales fall into one of seven categories: tales of origin, tales of trickery and trouble, tales of triumph over natural or supernatural evils, comic heartwarming tales, tales teaching life lessons, tales of ghosts and spirits, and tales of slaves and their slave-owners. Many revolve around animals which have human characteristics with the same morals and short comings as humans to make the stories relatable. Folktales belong to all of us. They are part of our American history.

While these classic stories are not only highly entertaining, they also play an important role in passing along core values or character traits. Folktales were often employed to share a common history (which doesn’t always make it into the history books) and to reinforce cultural values.

For several generations, stories from Africa have traditionally been passed down by word of mouth. Often, after a hard day’s work, the adults would gather the children together by moonlight, around a village fire and tell stories. This was traditionally called ‘Tales by Moonlight’. Usually, the stories are meant to prepare young people for life, and so each story taught a lesson or moral.

In African folk tales, the stories reflect the culture where diverse types of animals abound. The animals and birds are often accorded human attributes, so it is not uncommon to find animals talking, singing, or demonstrating other human characteristics such as greed, jealousy, honesty, etc. The setting in many of the stories exposes the reader to the landform and climate within that region of Africa. References are often made to different seasons such as the ‘dry’ or ‘rainy’ season and their various effects on the surrounding vegetation and animal life.

Some information used in the above program description has been taken from the Anike Foundation website. For more information on the efforts of Anike Foundation visit anikefoundation.org

FEATURED ART AND PERFORMING ARTIST:

• Bobby Norfolk – bobbynorfolk.com
• The Anansi Spider – A West African Folktale: Origin – Present day Ghana, off the coast of West Africa, is home to the Ashanti (or Asante) people whose oral tradition of storytelling eventually brought the story of Anansi to life. Bobby Norfolk’s performance will include the story of the Anansi Spider.

SUGGESTED MUSIC:

• Music Video Playlist available on Cedarhurst’s YouTube Channel

SUGGESTED BOOKS:

• Anansi and the Magic Stick by Eric A. Kimmel
• Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock by Eric A. Kimmel
• Anansi and the Talking Melon by Eric A. Kimmel
• Anansi Goes Fishing by Eric A. Kimmel
• Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales by Virginia Hamilton
• John Henry (Picture Puffins) by Julius Lester
• Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe
• The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales by Virginia Hamilton
• The Princess and the Pea by Rachel Isadora
• Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears: A West African Tale by Verna Aardema
• Why Spider Spins Tales: A Story from Africa by: Janet Palazzo-Craig

*Please select the John R and Eleanor R Mitchell Foundation when using the Amazon Smile links above to allow a portion of the purchase price to support Cedarhurst programming.