Children Born from Eggs

African Magic Tales – Texts and Discussions

Author: Sigrid Schmidt.

Series: Afrika erzählt Volume 9

2007
526 pp.
1 illustration, appendix: Analyses of Tales, Motif-Index, Subject Index
Text language(s): English
Format: 155 x 230 mm
780 g
Paperback
€ 39.80

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Are there magic tales in Africa at all? Even among authorities there are many pros and cons. This book wants to join the debate and claim: Yes, there are! The author, who brings in more than 45 years of attachment to African folklore and the insights gained by listening to hundreds of different story-tellers, approaches the subject from various aspects.

In part I she offers 70 tales which she recorded in Namibia between 1975 and 1997. These texts, most of them examples of magic tales, have not been published before. They are addressed to any reader who enjoys reading folktales.

Part II gives the background information on the narrators and the individual tales, part III a general discussion of the character of African magic tales from the literary and folkloristic point of view. The study focusses on the traditions of the Nama-speaking peoples but they are always seen in relation to further African lore, particularly to their Bushmen (San) and Bantu-speaking neighbours. Special emphasis is laid on a comparison with European Zaubermärchen. Part IV adds the tools for a closer study: motif analysis of all existing variants of this group of tales, motif index according to Stith Thompson and subject index.

The author wants to help African readers to appreciate fully their local heritage but also to see it in relation to further African and international traditions, and to help Western readers to understand and appreciate African lore.

In her Catalogue of the Khoisan Folktales of Southern Africa, re-edited in 2013, Sigrid Schmidt lists all tales which were told by Khoisan people and said to have been learned orally. The catalogue consists of two volumes that can be ordered separately or together, see the following links:

Accompanying material:

• Catalogue of the Khoisan Folktales of Southern Africa (ISBN 978-3-89645-870-4)
• Catalogue of the Khoisan Folktales of Southern Africa (ISBN 978-3-89645-871-1)
• Catalogue of the Khoisan Folktales of Southern Africa (ISBN 978-3-89645-872-8)

Cross-reference:

• Zaubermärchen in Afrika (ISBN 978-3-927620-80-3)

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