Week 6: South African Reading Diary

This week I read the South African Unit. Story source: South African Folk-Tales by James Honey (1910).

From the first half of the unit, my favorite stories were The Monkey's Fiddle,  and The World's Reward.

Many of the stories had very clever characters, which were made to look even more clever by foiling them with characters who didn't know what was really going on. This was especially true in the World's reward story. To start, I loved that all of these old animals united to find a better place in this world. Then, the way that they scared the thieves off so the animals could have the food and shelter was fun to read. I think if a third party was observing this story happening, they would be laughing hysterically.

I also liked how all of the animals coordinated to keep the thieves out once they were ready to sleep. They all had a part to play and were prepared to defend their area. All of that said, my favorite part of the story was when the thief who was attacked by all of the animals went back to his friends and told told of these tortures that people had put him through, not realizing it was actually a group of old animals.

(African bull)

The other story I thought was described very well and taught an important lesson. I could see this story being told to children to keep them from stealing. I like that the monkey was still humble, even when he had everyone at his control with the fiddle. When he kept playing and made everyone dance, the lion offered him the entire kingdom. The monkey refused the offer and just asked for his life and the return of his bow and arrow, as well as the wolf admitting he lied. I think that this has the best morals of any story in this first half. It also taught a practical lesson of justice not always being just or correct. I enjoyed this story a lot. 

(vervet monkey)

For the second half of the reading, my favorites were the White Man and the Snake, and the Judgement of the Baboon.

The White Man and the Snake was also a clever story that had morals enveloped in it. One of the things it reminded me of was the old saying, "Don't bite the hand that feeds you". When the snake was helped by the man and then began trying to bite him, It make the man regret what he did, and by the end of the story, refuse to help the snake again. 

It also would teach the lesson of not trusting everyone you meet. Just because you want to do the right thing, you shouldn't assume others will. In this case, both the snake and the hyena both wanted the man to be killed by the snake even though he helped her. Even though he did the right thing by helping her, they were willing to kill him for personal gain.I love how in most of the stories Jackals are very clever animals. I would love to know the cultural thinking behind this reoccuring theme. 

(Jackal)

I thought the Judgement of the Baboon was interesting because it set up a hierarchy of animals and elements. This set up would be used to explain why certain animals fought and why some natural elements like wood, fire, and water had extreme effects on each other. I thought the end was interesting how the baboon was kind of punished for his judgement, even thought the tailor was happy with the outcome. I wasn't expecting there to also be a punishment of getting the honor of only walking on two legs getting taken away from the monkey. 

(baboon pic by Jason Wharam)