Reading Part B "West African Folk-tales"

A tortoise in the desert (Source)

This series of stories now seems to be less focused on the machinations of the trickster god Anansi and instead on other themes, such as value lessons.
One of these is a story of a tortoise and a hunter who finds it in the woods. It is singing, and the hunter, enthralled by its voice, takes it home with him, promising that he will keep her to himself. Eventually he breaks this promise, trying to impress the village. This eventually leads to his death. Anansi is not even part of this tale.
Another story talks about a chameleon who, by his tricks, becomes king of the animals. None of them are happy with this outcome and they all abandon him.
Then we get back to Anansi, who continues to teach us lessons through his selfish and immoral actions. He had an opportunity to take home a whole elephant for dinner, but because he did not want to share it with his family, he instead chased after a small wren to give to his family. By the time he had given up, the elephant had escaped and Anansi returned home empty-handed.

Story Source: West African Folk-Tales, compiled by W. H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair.

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My Project website is here ! A picture I took while in Peru of a tiny pueblo in the Andes

Introduction Post

Hi! My name is Blake Allred and I am majoring in International Relations with a minor in Spanish. I chose this major because I love travelling and meeting new people and learning about their cultures and traditions. One of my favorite things about the classes I take is the chance that I have to meet other people from a very diverse range of backgrounds. If all goes well, I will be graduating this semester, so this part of my college journey is coming to an end. I’m still not sure how I feel about this, it is kind of a mixture between excitement and dread, but overall, I am glad I could have such a wonderful experience here at OU and that I am now able to graduate. This summer we went on a family vacation to visit my grandparents who live in rural Colorado. My grandpa is a retired pilot and owns his own plane and built his retirement home right next to a remote airstrip. When we went there this summer, I was able to go out flying with him and even f...

Storytelling "Hans the Hedgehog"

Hans riding his rooster (Source) This is the story of how Hans the Hedgehog became engaged to a princess. Hans was a very special little creature. His parents had tried for so long to have a child, but when Hans was born, they were horrified to see that their little baby had the head and torso of a hedgehog but the legs of a boy. Although they did their best to love him, from an early age Hans could tell that they were horrified and ashamed of their child. He grew very depressed and spent most of his time in the barn with the other animals, like the pigs, donkeys, and his best friend of all, the rooster. Since he was half hedgehog, Hans stopped growing very quickly and remained quite small. Although this surely disappointed his father, it was perfect, for Hans was able to ride around on top of the rooster as if it were a colorful horse. He rode the rooster everywhere, even flying up around the trees that lined his father’s fields. From th...

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