African fairy tales

Stories and legends in which people try to explain the world around them and nature are passed down from mouth to mouth throughout Africa. Many tales and parables of the African Teke people from the Bantu people group have survived. In these examples of African folklore, people who had neither education nor science and relied only on their own experience originally interpreted natural phenomena and animal behavior. The tales collected in this book tell why, for example, elephants only have one baby, why chickens cannot live in the same house with people, why hippos sit in water all the time, or why bats are afraid of the sun. These tales are living stories that older people tell children or adults when they sit down together to rest in the shade under a tree, or on quiet African evenings before going to bed.