Publisher's Synopsis
Owoicho, a Nobel Speaker, has selected these twenty tales with the specific hope that Nigeria's oldest stories, as well as a few new ones, be perpetuated by future generations and be appreciated by children throughout the world. In these "beloved stories, morsels rich with the gritty essence of Africa," we will meet, among many others, ''The King and the JuJu Tree, Iyeji and Ikinabo, we hear the voices of the scheming Tortoise and learn from an Igbo fable how animals acquired their tails and horns.''
Several creation myths tell us how the land, its animals, and its people all came into existence under a punishing sun or against the backdrop of a spectacularly beautiful mountain landscape.
Whether warning children about the dangers of disobedience or demonstrating that the underdog can-and often does-win, these stories, through their depiction of wise animals as well as evil monsters, are "universal in their portrayal of humanity, beasts, and the mystical."
What is particularly exciting about this book is that many of the stories, in their oral form, are almost as old as Africa itself. Most of them were, in fact, first told in various Nigerian tongues around evening fires in centuries past-tales from, for example, Iyeji and Ikinabo, How the Tortoise Got his Crooked Shell.
Translated into English and other European languages chiefly in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries from their original Nigerian languages-be they Hausa, Idoma, Yoruba, Igbo, or one of many others-these folktales are a testament to the craft of storytelling and the power of myth.
