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Tale
Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort
Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort (French Congo)
Richard Edward Dennett · 1898
Synopsis
Some thirty tales collected on the Loango coast among the Fjort, who are also called Vili, preceded by a chapter on how a tale is told. We read how Nsassi, the gazelle, took a wife, how the spider won and then lost the daughter of Nzambi, why the crocodile does not eat the hen, why some men are white and others black, and how two fetishes, Lifuma and Chimpukela, fought. The book closes with the death and funerals of the Fjort, with songs in an appendix.
Context
The collection appeared in London in 1898, from David Nutt, in the publications of the English folklore society, with an introduction by the traveller Mary Kingsley and five photographic plates. The manuscript had arrived in fragments: in the author's absence, she read it through in full and chose the texts and photographs to be published. He produced another book in 1906, devoted to the kingly office.
Who it is for
Tales in English, with no French edition. The notes assume a reader willing to follow Vili beliefs.
Prizes and reception
Reprinted in 1967, it has been digitised by several libraries and can be read freely online.
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