Author: A. J. [Arthur Jermy] Mounteney Jephson (1859–1908)
Illustrations: Walter W. Buckley
Year: 1893 [public domain]
Internet Archive: Always available.
Stories (8): Mahomet / The Lion and Mr. Hunger / The Leopardess and the Dog / Kintu / Daoud the Fisherman / Kilindi / The Cat and the Rat / The Monkey and the Ape. I have included two stories below: The Lion and Mr. Hunger and The Cat and the Rat.
Style: Highly literary; intended for young readers. The book is dedicated to the author's 29 nieces and nephews, and was originally written as a series of articles for a children's magazine.
Frame: The stories are presented as stories told around a campfire, with a summary of audience reactions after each story.
Storytellers: The storyteller of each story is named.
Additional Information: The subtitle of the book locates this book squarely in the paternalistic colonizer tradition: "Stories Told in an African Forest / by grownup children of Africa." The stories in this book come from Jephson's time in eastern Africa, on the "Emin Pasha" expedition in the late 1880s, the last of the great African expeditions of the Victorian era; you can find out more at Wikipedia: Emin Pasha Relief Expedition. The 200 African porters who were part of the expedition Jephson describes as "our faithful Negroes," as opposed to the "hostile tribes of savage cannibals and hordes of vicious, spiteful little dwarfs." Jephson's party recruited the Swahili-speaking men in Zanzibar, and he calls the stories in the book "Zanzibar stories." He represents the stories as told around the campfire in the evenings, and while he narrates the stories in a highly literary style, he also reflects some oral storytelling features, such as the participation of the audience, along with some debates after the end of the story.
Story Title: The Lion and Mr. Hunger
Tradition: Swahili tale from Zanzibar
Notes: The story is told by "Murabo," whom Jephson calls "the wit of the party" — I have removed the frametale portions. Jephson's diary records that the story was told on April 1, 1888. There is an ongoing debate after the story ends, especially about the rabbit; some of the audience think the rabbit should have starved too since he was dishonest. I have also changed the thee/thou pronouns to you. The animals address each other as "Bwana," which is a Swahili term of respect, something like "Mister." When the rabbits go to fulfill their orders, they shout "queri!" which is a Swahili exclamation, like "indeed!" or "hurrah!" I've changed the spelling to a more conventional kweri and glossed it with English in the text. As you will see from the exclamation "Allah!" the storyteller Murabo is a Muslim.
Parallels: A version of the story from Zimbabwe (an Nbele story) appears in Alexander McCall Smith's The Girl Who Married a Lion, and Other Tales from Africa: Greater Than Lion.
Story Title: The Cat and the Rat
Tradition: Swahili tale from Zanzibar
Notes: This is another story from April of 1888, occasioned by the swarming of rats in and around the expedition's fort. The story is told by "Osmani," who was the personal servant of Captain Robert Nelson — I have removed the frametale portions. The story calls the tree mahogo (muhogo), but glosses it as manioc, so I have used manioc throughout. The word pania (panya) is Swahili for mouse or rat, and the work paka is Swahili for cat. The storyteller refers to Zanzibar by the name "Ungujia," but I have used the more familiar Zanzibar instead. There are other islands mentioned in the first paragraph but the names do not conform to common usage, so I put the cat and rat on Kwale, seeking to reach Zanzibar.
Parallels: In the frametale of the story, someone asks the storyteller if the story is really true, and a member of the audience comments, "I have heard it told many times before." A version of this story appears in Mara Pratt-Chadwick's The Alo Man; Stories from the Congo: Why Cat and Rat Are Enemies.
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