Tales, Fables and Narratives of Rwanda

Author: Eugène Hurel †. Transcribed by: Matthias Brack, Leo Sibomana, John Doldo IV. Translated by: Matthias Brack, Leo Sibomana, John Doldo IV.

Series: Verbal Art and Documentary Literature in African Languages Volume 45

In 1922, Eugène Hurel published a collection of Rwandan folk­tales and proverbs with French translations. Now, hundred years later, we present a new edition of his book. We have transcribed Hurel’s old-fashioned Rwandan texts into modern scientific Kinya­rwanda, which marks the lengths and heights of the vowel tones, and translated Hurel’s French introduction and all 40 folktales into English and German. We have omitted the proverbs because there already exists an abundant litera­ture in many lan­gua­ges, both in book form and in the in­ter­net, of Rwandan proverbs.

Undoubtedly, these folktales belong amongst the richest trea­sures of the old Rwandan culture, which definitely should be preserved for posterity. With this trilingual edition of Hurel’s book, we want to make them available to a wider, not only Fran­co­phile audience.

The Kinyarwanda and English versions of the tales are presen­ted in a two-sided layout (left pages: K, right pages: E), ar­ran­ged into small numbered paragraphs appearing at the same height on both sides. In the second part of the book, the Ger­man trans­lations of this Preface, Hurel’s introduction and the tales follow in a single-paged layout. A large number of foot­notes gives not only lin­guistic, but also cultural, ethnographical and historical infor­ma­tion and explains the meanings of most Rwandan names. In this form, we hope that the present book will serve not only students of the language Kinyarwanda in the Western world, but also those Rwandans who are inte­rested in the classical lite­rature of their country.

Accompanying material:

• Legenden, Märchen und Fabeln aus Ruanda (ISBN 978-3-89645-743-1)
• Wörterbuch Kinyarwanda–Deutsch (ISBN 978-3-89645-588-8)

Cross-reference:

• An Anthology of Tashelhiyt Berber Folktales (South Morocco) (ISBN 978-3-89645-381-5)
• Animal Husbands, Magic Horns and Water Spirits (ISBN 978-3-89645-221-4)
• Aschenputtel und Eulenspiegel in Afrika (ISBN 978-3-927620-77-3)
• Baho Umwaka ... Simo za Umwaka za Ching’hwele [Tales and Animal Stories of the Kwere] (ISBN )
• Children Born from Eggs (ISBN 978-3-89645-192-7)
• Folktales of the Kxoe in the West Caprivi (ISBN 978-3-89645-081-4)
• Mandinka Spoken Art (ISBN 978-3-927620-63-6)
• Mpoto Fables and Folktales (Tanzania) (ISBN 978-3-89645-738-7)
• Narrations of the Kavango (ISBN 978-3-89645-279-5)
• Narrator as Interpreter (ISBN 978-3-89645-102-6)

© 2023 by Rüdiger Köppe Verlag – www.koeppe.de

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