Tale
Some Folk-lore Stories and Songs in Chinyanja
Robert Sutherland Rattray · 1907
Synopsis
The collection opens with accounts of customs recorded in Chinyanja in central Angoniland: the poison ordeal, the funeral of a chief, the unamwali initiation ceremony, birth, marriage by purchase, the rain temple, the diviner who names the sorcerers. Then come animal tales, in which the hare outwits the lion and the elephant and the tortoise measures himself against the antelope or the baboon, the two-headed python, the blind man and the hunchback, followed by riddles, proverbs and songs.
Context
The book appeared in London in 1907, from the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, with a preface by Alexander Hetherwick, of the Blantyre mission, author of a handbook of the language. Employed by the company at Blantyre and then on the Angoni plateau, the author wanted to supply students with the prose that was lacking, each sentence written as a man of the country would say it. The texts are given in Chinyanja in a first part, in literal English translation in a second, with notes on the language; the customs are those of descendants of the Zulus who came from south of the Zambezi, mixed with the Chewa.
Who it is for
Short texts, best read with the language notes; the book can be read freely online.
Prizes and reception
Reprinted in New York in 1969, it has been digitised by several African studies libraries.
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