African Tales

Scheub has collected, transcribed, and translated 46 stories from storytellers of many languages and cultures across southern and northern Africa. He recognizes that the unique tensions of the live, oral, public performance and the many nonverbal aspects of storytelling cannot be rendered precisely on paper, and uses a hybrid form that is neither oral narrative nor literary story. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Patricia Moore - KLIATT

Scheub, an expert in the storytellers and the tales of Africa, presents over 40 stories from as many language groups and tribes of the continent. Some tales are short, others lengthy; some are humorous, many quite violent; some are magical, while many are based on the deepest foibles of human nature. As a compiler, Scheub goes to great lengths to capture the tone, rhythm and style of the tellers, many of whom are pictured in the text. His introduction challenges the reader to read as a listener, to bring to the stories a sense of excitement, of drama, and a flair for audience participation like those that first greeted the tales. Recommended for cultural studies. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2005, Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 286p. illus. notes. bibliog., Ages 15 to adult.

Harold Scheub is the Evjue-Bascom Professor of Humanities in the Department of African Languages and Literature at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is the author of many books, including Story, The Poem in the Story, The Tongue Is Fire: South African Storytellers and Apartheid, and The World and the Word, all published by the University of Wisconsin Press.