Where Animals Talk: West African Folk Lore Tales — Key Ideas to Explore

Oral Transmission and Variation

Nassau explains that these tales were transmitted verbally for generations, likely thousands of years, and variations across tribes were inevitable. Narrators preserve the original plot and characters but vary the tale by introducing objects known to their audience. This leads to inconsistencies, such as a character using a spear in the original story but a pistol in a later telling. Nassau states that these inconsistencies do not offend the taste of a people with whom even the impossible is not a bar to faith; rather, the inconsistency sharpens their enjoyment. He also notes that modern allusions—like cannon, tables, or steamships—should not be taken as evidence against the tales' antiquity, as narrators constantly embellish with novel additions.

The Bojabi Episode: A Test of Memory

The excerpt presents a sustained narrative about beasts trying to learn the name of a fruit tree from Boa. Rat, Porcupine, Antelope, and others each journey to Boa's town, learn the name "Bojabi," but forget it upon returning, leading to beatings from the assembled beasts. The failures are attributed to actions during the journey: eating, drinking, or performing calls of nature at sea. Tortoise, the last to try, receives instructions from his mother to avoid these actions. He restrains himself, arrives at Boa's, and succeeds. The episode illustrates the tale's pattern of repeated attempts with variation, and the role of maternal guidance in overcoming a challenge that stymied larger, stronger animals.

The Role of Ngalo and Fetish

Nassau's preface highlights the fetish-charm "Ngalo" as a device characters use to escape difficult situations, comparing it to Aladdin's Lamp. However, he notes the inconsistency that despite this aid, actors often suffer from small evils of daily human life. The excerpt does not feature Ngalo directly, but the beasts' reliance on Boa's knowledge and Tortoise's mother's advice suggests a world where supernatural or authoritative knowledge is sought. The catalog subjects list "Animals -- Folklore" and "Tales -- Africa, West," but the preface and excerpt show that the tales are not simple animal stories; they embed human social dynamics, taboos, and the importance of memory and obedience within a framework of talking beasts.

Readers should approach these tales with Nassau's preface in mind: the beasts are not merely animals but beings that shift between animal and human behavior within a single sentence. The repetition and variation are intentional features, not flaws. The Bojabi episode demonstrates how a simple quest narrative can reveal character traits and cultural values. Pay attention to the role of mothers, the consequences of forgetting, and the use of fetish charms, as these elements recur throughout the collection.

I keep thinking about Nassau's Tortoise, the one who remembers the tree's name when all the cleverer beasts forget. There’s a quiet dignity in that—the unassuming one carrying the memory. It reminded me of the old letters in Strange Pages from Family Papers — Background and Themes, where the smallest, most overlooked annotations held the real story. Both feel like holding a whisper that outlasts the shout.