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Genres
that indicate African heritage
Finding
genres of tales told by people in isolation (for example,
stories about Anansi and other tricksters like Tortoise
and Rabbit) is one way to see evidence of a common
heritage. But
what about when the origin of a tale is in question? Or when the people in question are more acculturated
(as in the United States)?
There are other ways to see African heritage
and influence.
One way is to look for similarity of content. In his books on African and Afro-American tales,
Roger Abrahams presents a story from Suriname and
one from the Amakosa people of South Africa.
In both stories, a hunter encounters a snake.
In one case, it cannot get out of a hole it
has fallen into; in the other, it cannot get out from
under a stone that has fallen onto its back. The snake begs the hunter to rescue it. The hunter is reluctant to do so, believing
that the snake will bite him when freed.
The snake promises it will not.
The hunter frees the snake, and, of course,
the snake attempts to bite him.
Jackie Torrence, an African American woman
born in Chicago and raised in a North Carolina family
steeped in oral tradition, tells a similar story wherein
the snake is in a hole and has a stone upon his back.
An opossum is the rescuer.
The Afro-American tales are close enough to
the African that one can readily see the connection.
These three stories have similar endings. In all of them, the rescuers ask a judge to
decide whether it is right that the snake should bite
the hand that freed it.
And here again we see African influence.
In West Africa it is common for a judge to
ask for a reenactment of the circumstances of the
case. The judges in all the stories ask the snake
and the rescuer to re-create the snake’s dilemma. Once the snake is again imprisoned, the judge advises the rescuer
to leave the snake as he found it.
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