A British colonial officer in southern Nigeria collected these tales: why the bat flies by night, why worms live underground, the king’s magic drum, the woman with two skins, and the disobedient daughter who married a skull. Andrew Lang’s introduction compares them with folklore elsewhere, in the patronising language that British writers of 1910 used about Africa.
A valuable early record of West African storytelling, read best with an eye on its colonial framing. Download the free EPUB.